Category Archive: Downtown Development
-
URA is ready to sell; Millcraft is ready to start
Price tag is $2.5 million for G.C. Murphy’s parcel where apartments slatedWednesday, December 13, 2006
By Mark Belko,
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteThe city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority is poised to sell old G.C. Murphy’s store buildings and other properties to a Washington County developer for $2.5 million — another key step in the redevelopment of the downtrodden Fifth and Forbes corridor, Downtown.
Millcraft Industries Inc., doing business as Downtown Streets Pittsburgh LP, intends to convert the former store and the adjacent properties into shops and apartments targeting middle-income wage earners and renting from $750 to $1,500 a month.
“We’re finally getting it off the ground, so we’re excited,” said Lucas Piatt, Millcraft vice president of real estate. “We’re ready to start digging.”
URA board members are expected to vote tomorrow on a proposal to sell six Fifth Avenue parcels, including three that make up the Murphy’s store, to Downtown Streets Pittsburgh.
Downtown Streets is a subsidiary of Millcraft. Mr. Piatt said Ira Morgan, a friend of late Mayor Bob O’Connor, no longer is part of the development team.
The purchase price represents a bargain of sorts for Millcraft — the URA paid $3.83 million for the buildings, all of which were purchased over the last four years. Mr. Piatt said the $2.5 million is in line with the values provided by an appraiser hired by the URA and Millcraft.
Millcraft originally had looked at converting the Murphy’s store to condominiums and apartments, but switched to all apartments in order to take advantage of federal tax credits available to developers of historic structures, thus lowering redevelopment costs.
The apartments would target $40,000 to $50,000 wage earners and offer a more affordable alternative to the luxury condos under construction in the Golden Triangle, including those at Piatt Place in the former Lazarus-Macy’s building, Millcraft’s other Downtown project.
Millcraft now estimates that the cost of converting the Murphy’s store will run $30 million to $40 million, up from the initial $21 million estimate.
The URA board also is expected to act tomorrow on a proposed agreement with Millcraft on 10 other authority-owned parcels on Forbes Avenue and Wood Street in the Fifth-Forbes corridor.
They are to be developed in phases by Millcraft, and would include a $50 million, 18-story Forbes Village high-rise on Forbes near Market Square that is to offer a mix of condos, apartments and shops.
As part of the action, Millcraft would have exclusive control over the properties for an unspecified period, with redevelopment proposals to be made at a later date.
URA Executive Director Jerome Dettore could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Once the Murphy’s project gets rolling, there will be two major redevelopments occurring simultaneously on Fifth Avenue in the heart of the Downtown retail corridor.
The other, across the street from the Murphy’s construction, is the $170 million Three PNC Center skyscraper that will house offices, a hotel and luxury condos. It is expected to open in 2008. Construction has started.
Also tomorrow, the URA is expected to sell three parcels, one on Fifth Avenue and two on Market Street, to a subsidiary of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation for $257,000.
The foundation intends to convert the vacant structures into upper-floor apartments, with street-level retail.
(Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262. )
-
Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr. Keynote Address at the 2006 National Preservation Conference
PHLF News
October 31, 2006“Preservation In Pittsburgh” Keynote address of Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr. at the 2006 National Preservation Conference held in Pittsburgh, PA, October 31, 2006
-
Present-day Market Square ‘just a big joke’
By Bonnie Pfister
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, October 22, 2006New plans are afoot for sprucing up Market Square, the more than 220-year-old acre of public space that has been home, variously, to Pittsburgh City Hall, the first Allegheny County courthouse and — up until the early 1960s — a produce market house.
Although proposals for adding temporary art and activities, including those geared toward children, are among the improvements being mulled, there are fixtures that local merchants say are impeding positive public use.La Gondola Pizzeria owner Sergio Muto calls them “the statues of Market Square.”
“When I come in the morning, they’re here,” Muto said. “When I go home at night, they’re still here.”
They are the dozen or so people — mostly middle-aged men — who locals say spend most of the day and evening perched on the low marble walls around the southeastern quadrants of green space. With St. Mary of Mercy Church’s Red Door program around the corner handing out bagged lunches six days a week, Market Square long has been a place where the homeless can pass time.
Although merchants such as Muto and Dan Konieczny, manager at Jenny Lee Bakery, which has been Downtown since 1938, expressed empathy for the destitute, they say the panhandling and other behavior by some keep would-be patrons from lingering in the area, particularly at night.
“Too many of the regulars are doing drug deals or asking people for money,” Konieczny said. “The garbage, the language. You can make all the changes and redesigns you want. You’ve got to get rid of the bums,” he said. “Market Square is just a big joke.”
“It’s kind of shady,” said Heather Bitar, who works at nearby Point Park University.
Patronizing a farmer’s market stand in the square last Thursday during a spate of warm weather, Bitar said she avoids the area at night and on weekends. Even during the daylight, she said she has seen people arrested and recently a woman “throwing a fit, emptying her purse out on the ground and screaming that someone stole her drugs.
“But what are you going to do, post ‘No Loitering’ signs? It’s a public park,” she said.
And therein lies the challenge that has bedeviled Pittsburghers for much of the four decades. How do you tell people with nowhere else to go not to go to Market Square, with its legacy as a public space?
Since the 1963 demolition of the Diamond Market house — an elevated building straddling Forbes Avenue that featured a second-floor roller rink — Market Square has gone through several reconfigurations and even more proposals, said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
In the mid-1970s, Ziegler said then-Mayor Pete Flaherty tapped into federal funds to hire students to replace the square’s asphalt roads with Belgian brick cobblestones in an effort to restore a Colonial atmosphere and encourage many of the same outdoor activities, such as sidewalk dining and art exhibits, that remain elusive today.
“Once the market-house demolition occurred, it became a place that didn’t quite know what to do with itself,” Ziegler said. “It’s gone through a number of revisions, none of which have been fully successful.”
It has played host to Steelers pep rallies, anti-war protests and rallies featuring national political figures. On April 15, 1985, a woman wearing a flesh-colored bodysuit and long, strategically draped hair rode through the square on a horse to protest taxation.
But today such public exhibitions tend to be less deliberative. A naked woman arrested in the square in June was merely fleeing after trying to shoplift a bag of peanuts from a Smithfield Street vendor, police said.
Although reported assaults were down from 11 in 2001 to three so far this year, and Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Cheryl Doubt said officers have managed to drive out the open-air drug activity of the past, more resources are needed. Since budget cuts in the early 1990s, only a single daytime beat officer monitors Market Square; he was not replaced during a recent four-month leave.
Michael Edwards, president of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, which commissioned the recent study by New York-based Project for Public Spaces, said enhanced police presence, at least initially, would be key to revitalization.
“We can’t be successful without stepped-up police enforcement of the rules,” Edwards said. “The way we’ll take back the square is through recognizing the need to manage it, and we’ll need the city’s resources.”
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said last week that the city will consider making some financial commitment to better management of the square, but he also expects “leadership from the business and foundation community.”
Edwards said the partnership has a $100,000 grant from the Colcom Foundation and hopes to land a similar one from the Heinz Foundation to begin planning events that will draw more people to Market Square — perhaps around Light Up Night on Nov. 17, or for extended outdoor dining in the spring.
“One of the things we heard loud and clear is, we’re done designing,” Edwards said. “The community is pretty tired of that.”
A redesign contest that was discussed earlier this year has been put aside in favor of smaller tweaks to the existing square, such as experimenting with temporary art and event programming. If these steps are successful, Edwards said, a more structured management plan could be forthcoming in several years, as could a redesign.
Not everyone is happy about the smaller-scale approach, however.
Ron Gargani, owner of Buon Giorno, said he is disappointed that a new redesign now — particularly one that reroutes buses as late Mayor Bob O’Connor had suggested, or adds parking spaces — would not be forthcoming.
“It’s just a Band-Aid on the problem,” said Gargani, who opened for business six years ago and purchased his building in 2004. “Who wants to bring their children here when you have cars and buses continuously flying by? This square needs completely redone.”
Bonnie Pfister can be reached at bpfister@tribweb.com.
-
Group to showcase 3 Downtown structures
Landmarks officials upbeat on restoring 5th-Forbes buildings
By Mark Belko,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Friday, August 11, 2006The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation views a $2 million-plus project to revitalize three old buildings in the heart of the Fifth and Forbes corridor Downtown as a symbol of a new attitude toward preservation.
Foundation officials hope to showcase the project, which involves reuse of three buildings at Fifth Avenue and Market Street, when preservationists nationwide gather in Pittsburgh this fall for the National Preservation Conference.
Landmarks President Arthur Ziegler said it wasn’t that long ago that preservationists were battling former Mayor Tom Murphy over his first plan to improve the Fifth and Forbes corridor, one that would have endangered a number of older buildings Downtown.
At one point, the National Trust for Historic Preservation designated the Downtown retail district as one of the most 11 endangered historic areas in America.
Mr. Ziegler said conditions have changed under Mayor Bob O’Connor, as evidenced by city Urban Redevelopment Authority board approval yesterday to sell the three Market and Fifth buildings to the foundation for $257,000.
“I think we have a national story to tell on cooperation, reuse … and I think we have just the right audience for it, because the last they heard was downbeat under Mayor Murphy. Now they’re going to hear upbeat with this new administration,” he said.
As part of yesterday’s action, the URA board approved the purchase of a deteriorating building at 439 Market from the city for $40,000 plus costs, and then turned around and sold that structure and two adjacent ones owned by the authority to a foundation subsidiary for $300,000.
The final sales price ended up at $257,000 as a result of a $43,000 credit given to the foundation because of the need for demolition work at 439 Market, a building in such disrepair that it is viewed by adjacent property owners as a safety hazard in danger of collapse.
The three buildings have an assessed value of $639,000, according to the Allegheny County real estate Web site.
Mr. Ziegler said Landmarks intends to preserve the facades of all three structures, including the old Regal Shoe Co. That building was designed by Alden & Harlow, a prominent city architectural firm in the early 20th century.
The foundation is looking to convert the first floor of the three combined buildings into retail space, with apartments likely on the upper floors. There also is a chance that the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership may use upper floor space for offices. In all, 12,000 square feet is involved.
Mr. Ziegler said Landmarks hopes to get started by Halloween, in time for the conference. It expects the renovation to take about a year.
“We’re very, very anxious to get started,” he said.
State Sen. Jim Ferlo, a URA board member, said he hopes the project can be a “rallying cry of sorts” to show that the O’Connor administration takes preservation seriously.
The rehabilitation will complement larger projects planned for the corridor. PNC Financial Services Group has begun demolition to make way for Three PNC Plaza, a 23-story office, hotel, and residential complex on Fifth Avenue.
Millcraft Industries is working on a residential and retail development that would involve reuse of the old G.C. Murphy building and nearly 20 other URA-owned properties in the corridor. Some would be demolished to make way for a residential complex.
(Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262. )
Copyright © PG Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved.This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
-
History & Landmarks Foundation eyes 3 buildings
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, August 9, 2006The Urban Redevelopment Authority plans to sell three historic buildings on the edge of Market Square to the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, which wants to renovate them into retail and residential space.
URA Executive Director Jerry Dettore expects board approval Thursday to sell the buildings for $257,000.
“The buildings in Market Square are considered historic, so the preservation of them and the restoration of them is something that everyone would like to see,” Dettore said Tuesday.
Officials with the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership have expressed interest in moving into one of the renovated buildings.
Before the sale is complete, the URA must purchase one city-owned building, next to the restaurant Ciao Baby, for $40,000. Once that’s done, the three buildings near the corner of Fifth Avenue and Graeme Street can be sold to History & Landmarks.
Foundation Director Arthur Ziegler could not be reached for comment.
Dettore said renovations could begin quickly.
“Just to begin to see some construction activity in the Fifth & Forbes corridor is going to show people that the revitalization (Downtown) is real,” he said, noting that renovations to the former Lazarus-Macy’s Building are under way. Millcraft Industries, of Washington County, is developing retail and grocery space on the first floor and housing on upper floors.
Dettore said the board also will consider giving a $200,000 state Department of Community and Economic Development loan and $5,000 technology grant to Strip District-based lamp shade manufacturer J. Harris & Sons. The money would allow the company to buy manufacturing equipment and expand with 50 more employees.
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
-
Bell tower repairs at courthouse to be made soon
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, August 8, 2006Work is expected to begin shortly on two of the four bell towers that ring at Allegheny County’s historic courthouse, Downtown.
Driving wind and rain from the remnants of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 damaged masonry joints on the two towers nearest Ross Street, said Joe Olczak, county maintenance director.County maintenance workers did temporary repairs, but the damage requires more expertise than that team has, he said.
The selected contractor will clean out the mortar between the joints and replace it with sturdier material, Olczak said.
Because bids have not yet been open, specific cost information cannot be made public, said Megan Dardanell, a county spokeswoman.
The project was provided for in the county’s 2006 capital budget under roof repairs, however.
Once the contract is awarded, the contractor has 90 days to complete the project.
-
Destruction of Mellon Bank Lobby
Courtesy of KDKA
-
Costly rehab down the line
By Jim Ritchie
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, July 24, 2006The iconic Monongahela and Duquesne Heights inclines each day crawl up and down Mt. Washington’s steep hillside, inching ever closer to needing a costly rehabilitation.
Port Authority of Allegheny County directors say the price tag to keep the cars running could reach $40 million — and some want civic, corporate or historical groups to help pay, so the financially struggling agency isn’t forced to spend money that could be used to replace buses or light-rail cars or to pave busways.
“We’ve got to be looking at ways to generate revenue,” authority board member James Dodaro said. “It is a community asset, and it’s something the community should have an interest in preserving. It’s something that shouldn’t be a drain on the Port Authority.”
Some incline riders agree the inclines are an asset for the city and like the idea of having community groups help pay for their long-term upkeep. More than 1.1 million people use the inclines annually.
“When I go Downtown and have to do business, I use it,” said Mt. Washington resident Raymond Batykefer, who rides the Mon Incline frequently. “It’s cheaper, saves me the cost of parking, and it’s pretty efficient.”
The 136-year-old Mon Incline and 129-year-old Duquesne Heights Incline are in good working condition, and a major renovation isn’t anticipated soon. But the authority, which faces a $31.5 million deficit in its 2006-07 budget, anticipates future incline expenses.
“This board has made it a point to direct the staff to try and discover new funding streams wherever possible, and that includes funding streams for projects like this down the road,” Port Authority spokesman Bob Grove said.
Port Authority could tap its capital budget — more than $200 million this year — to pay for improvements, Grove said. But any money spent on inclines is money the agency won’t have to improve bus and subway service.
Finding money elsewhere would not be easy, local nonprofit officials say.
The Allegheny Regional Asset District planned to allocate nearly $75 million this year, but largely focuses on helping parks, libraries and civic organizations — not transit or public works projects.
“There’s nothing right now that would make their application ineligible, but it would be an entirely new direction,” said David Donahoe, executive director of the asset district.
The Greater Pittsburgh Convention & Visitors Bureau markets the region but does not help secure money.
“We do not get involved in bricks-and-mortar,” Executive Vice President Bob Imperata said. “Having said that, we’re very conscious of the need to have attractions like the Mon and Duquesne inclines. They’re very valuable assets and important tourist attractions. We market them extensively.”
The bureau has considered using the inclines as a symbol for Pittsburgh’s tourism industry, similar to San Francisco’s cable cars or the St. Louis Gateway Arch, Imperata said.
Advertising companies have pushed local officials to adopt the symbol so they could market incline trinkets, he said.
“This is so historical,” Octavia Coburn, of Rankin, said after riding the Mon Incline. “They’ve got to keep it going. People come here and look for the inclines.”
“This is Pittsburgh — the inclines,” said her husband, Donald Coburn.
Imperata suggested Port Authority might find a corporate sponsor or sell naming rights. The authority has tried to sell naming rights for its Downtown light-rail transit stations without success.
The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation in 1970 declared the Mon Incline a historic structure. Foundation spokeswoman Cathy McCollom said that could help the authority seek money nationwide.
“”Many of the historic preservation grants are statewide, if not throughout the U.S.,” she said.
State grants would offer up to a few hundred thousand dollars and national grants might rise to a million dollars, she said. But getting such money is a competitive process.
One possible long-term solution used elsewhere is charging tourists more money.
The Lookout Mountain Incline Railway in Chattanooga, Tenn., charges tourists $12 for a round-trip. Local commuters can buy a monthly pass that makes the fare about $1.25 per trip.
“One of the reasons we’re focused on it so much is, our incline generates about a million dollars of net revenue a year,” Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority Executive Director Tom Dugan said.
A round-trip fare on the inclines in Pittsburgh is $2.25, whether the rider is a tourist or commuter.
The Duquesne Heights Incline, although owned by Port Authority, is operated by the nonprofit Society for the Preservation of the Duquesne Incline. The group pays for maintenance by accepting contributions from foundations and other groups.
Donahoe said the group twice applied for Regional Asset District grants and was rejected.
“I can’t imagine people concerned about historic preservation not coming together to find a way to help,” McCollom said.
Jim Ritchie can be reached at jritchie@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7933.