Category Archive: Downtown Development
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Three Market Square buildings may get an upgrade
By Mark Belko,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Tuesday, February 14, 2006The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership may team with the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation to redevelop three publicly owned buildings in Market Square.
Both groups see the plan as a way to not only save three vacant, deteriorating buildings but to pump life into the Fifth and Forbes retail corridor and Market Square itself.
Under a preliminary proposal, the foundation would serve as developer of the three buildings from 439 Market St. to the corner of Market and Fifth Avenue. The Downtown Partnership would serve as an anchor tenant, moving from its offices on Liberty Avenue.
One of the partnership’s goals over the next five years is to focus more attention on Market Square, where it now sponsors Thursdays with a Twist and a farmers market.
The square also is a primary spot for many of the partnership’s annual Light Up Night festivities.
“We think that conceptually it makes a lot of sense,” Downtown Partnership President Michael Edwards said.
“Certainly Market Square, from the public’s perspective, is sort of a harbinger of the condition of Downtown. We need to make sure it is managed well and working for the merchants.”
The potential venture with the History & Landmarks Foundation comes as the Downtown Partnership prepares for its annual meeting today, one of its most anticipated in recent years. Mayor Bob O’Connor will be speaking, and the focus is expected to be on the growing investment Downtown, from residential housing to PNC’s new office tower on Fifth Avenue.
The History & Landmarks Foundation originally approached former Mayor Tom Murphy last year with a proposal to take over the three buildings, one owned by the city and two by the city Urban Redevelopment Authority. It did so in part to save the facade of 439 Market, a city-owned building in such disrepair that adjacent property owners wanted it demolished.
Mr. Murphy wouldn’t sell the buildings to the foundation, but he did accept a loan from the group to make repairs to 439 Market.
Foundation President Arthur P. Ziegler Jr. recently talked to Mr. O’Connor about the plan to work with the Downtown Partnership on the three buildings.
Mr. O’Connor said he’s willing to consider the idea and perhaps sell or lease the properties to the foundation, depending on what’s best for the city.
“Bringing good tenants to Market Square, Fifth and Market certainly is a goal, and I think it shows the vitality and desirability of the Fifth-Forbes corridor,” he said.
Mr. Ziegler envisions retail on the ground level of the buildings with the Downtown Partnership and possibly other tenants on upper floors. Preservation Pittsburgh also has proposed a transit cafe in the old Regal Shoe Co. building at Fifth and Market.
The entire endeavor, Mr. Edwards added, is contingent on several issues, including cost and the ability of the partnership to negotiate a settlement of its current lease, which runs until 2009.
The proposed reuse of the three buildings is just one idea to revitalize Market Square, which Mr. O’Connor has described as having an “old, tired” look. The mayor would like to turn the square into a small park, replacing sidewalks and streets with grass.
That plan could involve the elimination of Forbes Avenue, McMasters Way and Graeme Street where they run through the square.
(Mark Belko can be reached at mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.)
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Neighborhood groups begin to collect information on proposed casinos
By Bill Toland,
Monday, February 06, 2006
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteOf the three proposed Pittsburgh casinos, the Station Square venue so far has engendered the least neighborhood opposition — mainly because it would have the fewest neighbors, isolated as it is along the Monongahela River.
Community groups and local institutions in the North Side, Uptown and elsewhere are more skeptical of plopping casinos down on the North Shore or near Mellon Arena. Both of those plans already have prominent opponents.
That said, many neighbors of the three would-be casinos are just now beginning to focus on the pros and cons for their communities, and it’s far too early to tell how much local support or opposition each of the proposals will generate.
On the South Side, where Harrah’s and Forest City Enterprises want to build a Station Square casino, the South Side Planning Forum has scheduled a Feb. 14 meeting to discuss the impact of a casino, which would lie about a mile to the west of the South Side’s main business district. Officials from Forest City have been invited to the meeting.
“That’s sort of the first step in organizing a community discussion about this,” said Rick Belloli, executive director of the South Side Local Development Co.
Mr. Belloli also sits on the Pittsburgh Gaming Task Force, the organization charged with studying the various casino plans and gauging their potential social and economic effects.
The development group has worked with Forest City previously — last summer, Forest City, which owns Station Square, ran a shuttle from Station Square through the South Side, at the behest of the organization. Mr. Belloli hopes the two groups can work together again if Forest City is awarded a casino license.
The South Side development group, like their counterparts from Uptown and the Hill District, won’t actively lobby for or against the construction of a casino, but will approach the development with the Boy Scout motto in mind — be prepared.
“Gaming is going to happen in Pittsburgh,” Mr. Belloli said. The 2004 gambling law permits one, and only one, stand-alone casino to be located within the city’s limits.
“Let’s look at — if it’s going to be here — what are the issues we’ll have to deal with?”
Transportation is a big one. Carson Street isn’t exactly a superhighway, and if Harrah’s, which would operate the casino, plans to attract thousands of visitors on the weekend, Carson Street might resemble a parking lot after a Steelers game. Also, the traditional casino practice of giving free drinks to gamblers is something that restaurateurs and tavern owners in the South Side would like to see barred.
Zoning also is a concern — nobody wants the largely non-commercial stretch of East Carson, between Station Square and Sixth Street, to become a strip of pawnshops and adult entertainment venues. Changing the area’s zoning designation to “neighborhood commercial” might enable community groups to monitor those types of business, or prevent them from opening in the first place.
The South Side Planning Forum — which includes business interests, residential groups and service organizations — will often endorse a project, after determining whether it adheres to the forum’s neighborhood plan, said Hugh Brannan, who heads the forum.
But an endorsement for the proposed Station Square casino isn’t a slam dunk — a decade ago, the planning forum’s consensus was that the neighborhood should oppose floating casinos at the riverside site now known as South Side Works. “The community, 10 years ago, was pretty clear in not wanting riverboat gambling,” Mr. Brannan said.
The Lower Hill District and Uptown would be the two neighborhoods most affected by the Isle of Capri proposal to build a casino and put some of the proceeds toward a new arena, primarily for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Duquesne University, which sits atop the Bluff, announced its opposition to the casino last week, while stressing that the rest of the proposal — the new arena, the housing and the retail — looked pretty good.
“We’re good friends of the Penguins,” said Duquesne President Charles J. Dougherty. But “the casino is being put virtually two blocks from 10,000 students.”
The school, he said, had “an obligation to our students to stake out a position on this matter.”
Less certain of their position on the casino are various neighborhood groups in the area, as they pursue vague plans to “explore the pulse of the community.”
“Uptown is in the early stages of what we hope will be a big revitalization effort,” said Jeanne McNutt, chair of the Uptown Community Action group’s housing and economic development committee. “If [a casino] would jump-start traffic, that might be a good thing.”
A bad thing, she said, is that the slot machines might draw most of their winnings from people least able to provide them, including nearby students and residents of the Hill.
“If [the casinos are] intended to supplement our economy, I don’t like the idea of it being on the backs of people who probably can’t afford it,” Ms. McNutt said, stressing that she was giving a personal opinion and not speaking for the Uptown group. In informal discussions, she said, “the sense I’m getting is no. There’s just no space for it.”
Evan Frazier, head of the Hill House Association, said the casino may present opportunities for the area, but added that his social service organization also would have to evaluate the “social issues that arise as a result of having gaming abutting a residential neighborhood.”
On the North Shore, where Detroit businessman Don Barden hopes to build a casino near the Carnegie Science Center, community groups have yet to weigh in. The North Side Chamber of Commerce plans to poll board members, said board president Debbie Caplan, while the North Side Leadership Conference is searching for a new executive director and in the midst of revamping its business plan, said interim director Dana Jaros.
After that happens, “we’ll probably talk with business owners small and large,” she said.
But the most influential members of the North Side community — the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Pittsburgh Pirates — already oppose Mr. Barden’s casino. Continental Real Estate Cos., Equitable Resources and Del Monte Food also have lined up against a North Shore casino, saying it would be a “deterrent” to North Side business growth.
Correction/Clarification: (Published Feb. 8, 2006) Jeanne McNutt is the chair of the Uptown Community Action group’s housing and economic development committee. This story in the Feb. 6, 2006 editions of the Post-Gazette said incorrectly she was the head of the entire group.
(Bill Toland can be reached at btoland@post-gazette.com or 1-412-263-1889.)
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Casino prompts worry
By Bill Zlatos and Andrew Conte
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, February 3, 2006The Penguins proposal to build a casino in the Lower Hill District as part of a new arena deal is drawing opposition from nearby Duquesne University.
University President Charles Dougherty said Thursday he wants to protect the school’s 10,000 students from the distractions of gambling. “About one-third of them live on campus, and we don’t want them exposed to a slots parlor within a five-minute walk of campus.”
The Penguins have partnered with Isle of Capri Casinos, a gambling company based in Biloxi, Miss., and Nationwide Realty Investors, a company from Columbus, Ohio, that built a privately-funded arena in that city.
The three partners would form a nonprofit group called Pittsburgh First. Their proposal would transform the Lower Hill District with a casino, new 18,000-seat arena and 28 acres of housing and restaurants on the site of Mellon Arena.
Dougherty favors the commercial and housing aspects of the plan. He stressed that the university’s opposition to the casino does not mean that it is against the Penguins or a new arena for the hockey team.
“We’re fast friends with the Penguins,” he said. “We think the casino should be placed away from large concentrations of students and the owners forced to contribute to build a new arena.”
Dougherty cited studies that show the harmful effects of gambling on young adults. A Harvard report, for example, found that college students are three times more likely than adults and 20.5 percent more likely than youths to be “clinically disordered” gamblers.
“We also know that in some cases, casinos have drawn other problems like problems with alcohol, problems with illegal drugs and problems with prostitution,” he said.
Placing a casino close to college students is asking for trouble, agrees Bill Thompson, a professor of public administration at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
“Even (winning) $500 gives them a big rush, and they want the rush again,” said Thompson, an author on gambling. “If they get on a winning streak early, they can be hooked for life.”
Penguins officials were disappointed by Duquesne’s announcement.
“We think gaming is the economic engine that would invest over a billion dollars to revitalize the neighborhood around Duquesne University and actually make the city and the campus more livable,” said David Morehouse, the Penguins’ senior consultant.
“If the concern is that Duquesne students will frequent the casino, we want them to know the Isle of Capri is adamant about enforcing the age requirement of 21 to gamble.”
An age limit, however, will only create a boom in the market for false ID cards, Thompson said.
Members of a volunteer group studying ways to minimize the adverse impact of Pittsburgh’s casinos will review Duquesne’s decision.
“We’re going to weigh all of that public opinion,” said Anne Swager, co-chairwoman of the Pittsburgh Gaming Task Force. “We had hoped all along the casino can be a good neighbor.”
Asked whether a casino can be a good neighbor to a university, Swager said she had no idea.
“It just illustrates that there are multiple points of view, and that there’s going to be a tremendous challenge in reconciling the various viewpoints that exist about all three potential sites,” said Ron Porter, the other co-chair of the Pittsburgh Gaming Task Force. “All three have pluses and minuses.”
The Lower Hill District site is one of three proposed for slots in the city and one of four in Allegheny County.
Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises wants to open Harrah’s Station Square Casino. Detroit casino owner Don Barden wants to build a Majestic Star Casino on the North Shore. And Hays machine operator Thamer Collins wants to put a casino on vacant land near the Waterfront shopping center in West Homestead.
Dougherty said he had made his decision in consultation with his staff and the executive committee of Duquesne’s board of directors. He said board member Glenn Mahone — who owns a minority stake in the Station Square casino proposal — was not part of those discussions.
The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, located a few miles away in Oakland, have not taken positions on the proposed casino.
The Gaming Control Board, a seven-member group of state regulators, could issue casino licenses this summer.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Places: Market Square ain’t broke, so please don’t fix it
By Patricia Lowry,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Monday, January 23, 2006A little more than five years ago, during the barrage of competing plans for the Fifth-Forbes district, New York developer Stan Eckstut made an observation that had never occurred to me, and probably many others: Downtown Pittsburgh has too much public open space for a healthy retail environment.
In the alternative proposal he developed for Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, Eckstut suggested eliminating some of that open space by building a new market house in Market Square.
Earlier this month, in one of his first volleys as mayor, Bob O’Connor said that Downtown doesn’t have enough parks and green space. He wants to create more for the many new residents it will be getting when about 3,000 apartments and condominiums are built Downtown over the next few years. For one thing, O’Connor wants to eliminate the crossroads through Market Square — Market Street and Forbes Avenue — and turn its four quadrants into a small park.
Eckstut’s observation was a sound one, but his solution was flawed. And for much the same reasons, only part of O’Connor’s idea is worth embracing.
Downtown does have a lot of public open space, much of it clustered at the western tip of the triangle, in Point State Park and Gateway Center. But Eckstut also was referring to the many public plazas created in the last half of the 20th century — Mellon Square, PNC Plaza (along Wood Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues), USX Plaza, Heinz Hall Plaza, PPG Plaza, Katz Plaza and Mellon Green. And let’s not forget the new linear parks lining both sides of the Allegheny River.
No, Downtown Pittsburgh as a whole doesn’t want for public open space. Still, small “pocket parks” could be tucked in on narrow lots between buildings, as space allows and residential density dictates. Manhattan’s Paley Park, with a city-noise-screening water wall, moveable tables and chairs and shade-giving locust trees, is a good model.
O’Connor is right, though, in suggesting that buses be rerouted out of Market Square. With brick and Belgian block streets and lined mostly with historic and low-rise buildings, the square has a relaxed, pedestrian feel — until a bus bears down on you, catching you unawares. Removing them would go a long way in improving the ambience and air quality.But O’Connor also wants to close to vehicles McMasters Way and Graeme Street, which connect Fifth Avenue with the square, and eliminate Market Street and Forbes Avenue through the square. It’s almost never a good idea to close streets to cars where businesses are located, as the failed pedestrian malls of the 1960s in East Liberty, on the North Side and in many other American cities proved. Cars bring people, and people bring their shopping dollars and watchful eyes to the street. Closing Forbes through the square would have the domino effect of turning the blocks adjacent to it, between Stanwix and the square and between Wood and the square, into dead-end streets, making travel by car there difficult and jeopardizing those businesses as well.
And what, really, would be gained by turning Market Square into a grassy park? It already provides shade trees, a stage and plenty of seating, thanks to the low granite walls that surround three of the four quadrants. Most people don’t sit on grass, but it does provide comfortable bedding for vagrants and the homeless, as the edges of Point State Park attest.
The mayor thinks the square has an “old, tired” look. It’s supposed to look old; it’s historic. Tired? I just don’t see it, at least not in the design of the square.
Despite the drug dealing and the bars, which won’t go away if the streets are closed, Market Square is one of Downtown’s liveliest and most successful public spaces. In the warm months, men play chess there, vendors hawk fruits and vegetables, art students play hacky-sack, bike messengers take their breaks, office workers and culinary students eat their lunches, and the pigeons — a component of every thriving public square — couldn’t be happier.
Here’s another reason not to monkey with Market Square: The intersection of Forbes Avenue and Market Street is sacrosanct, the historic heart and soul of Pittsburgh. Even during the more than four decades that the massive Diamond Market occupied the square, both roads passed beneath it.
Those streets through and around Market Square are among the oldest in the city, dating to the Woods-Vickroy plan of 1784. The public square — which Scotch-Irish Pittsburgh called the Diamond, like the ones back home in Northern Ireland — was a gift that year from the heirs of William Penn, who owned the land.
In January 1800, the square’s new Georgian-style courthouse hosted the memorial service for President Washington, and soon also was being used as a borough meeting house and community theater. By 1815, the square also held a crescent-shaped market-house, which was replaced by a new market house in 1853. Diamond Market, built in 1914, was torn down in 1961, and the square reverted to public open space.
Market Square, as it’s now known, once again is our Speaker’s Corner and rallying place, comfortably home to noon-time concerts, sports celebrations and political protests.
“BETTER DEAD THAN RED,” Chinese students protested in 1979, when President Carter normalized relations with Peking. In 1985, a libertarian man wearing a barrel and carrying a “BORN FREE, TAXED TO DEATH” sign led a horse carrying a woman wearing a long blond wig and a flesh-colored body suit through Market Square, as they re-enacted Lady Godiva’s 11th-century tax protest. The square as civic center is exactly what the Penns envisioned, and turning it into a lawn would shut all of that down.
If the mayor wants to update Market Square, he could, as a friend said last week, make it wireless, along with PPG Plaza and that congenial connecting space between them. Marrying historic form with high-tech capability, after all, is a large part of what 21st-century Pittsburgh should be about.
(Architecture critic Patricia Lowry can be reached at plowry@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1590.)
Copyright ©1997-2005 PG Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Forest City Enterprises & Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. Unveil Plans for Harrah’s Station Square Casino More than $1 Billion Mixed Use Plan Put Forward
PITTSBURGH,
Jan 23, 2006
PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News NetworkForest City Enterprises (NYSE: FCEA; FCEB) today unveiled plans for over $1 billion of investment at Station Square in Pittsburgh, including dramatic new investment in the vitality of downtown Pittsburgh, a $512 million casino managed by Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: HET), a community partnership with the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation and the creation of a new charitable foundation headed by Franco Harris. Their plan is contingent on securing a license from the Pennsylvania Gaming Commission.
“Forest City Enterprises and Harrah’s Entertainment bring a world-class team with unparalleled experience to Pittsburgh. When we sold Station Square twelve years ago, we chose Harrah’s and Forest City from a large field because we knew they would create high quality development, jobs and revenue for revitalizing our neighborhoods,” said Art Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. “Forest City is a $7.8 billion economic development company with a long standing commitment to Pittsburgh and existing investment of $1 billion in today’s dollars in Pennsylvania. Station Square is the most successful tourist attraction in Western Pennsylvania, attracting 2.5 million visitors each year. Harrah’s is the most successful gaming company in the world, with 36 properties and projects in development worldwide.”
The plan expands Station Square into a bustling new urban mixed-use residential and entertainment community. This will include ground-floor retail, sidewalk dining and cafe eateries, a 400,000-square-foot, $512 million Harrah’s Station Square Casino with 3,000 slots, an additional 200 rooms at the Sheraton Station Square Hotel and 1,250 residential condominium units. All of these new elements will be connected by pedestrian scaled streets, creating a neighborhood look and feel. The residential units will have porches and stoops, accompanied by new parks and a riverside esplanade offering improved river access. With more than 50 acres at Station Square, the plan also allows for future expansion of the casino to 5,000 slots and the creation of a new hotel tower with 300-500 rooms.
Forest City and Harrah’s also unveiled a significant philanthropic commitment to Pittsburgh, both now and in the long-term, that will be realized should they secure the license to develop a casino, as follows:
– First, the Forest City/Harrah’s development proposal will enable the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation to establish an endowment of $25 million. Proceeds to the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation will be invested with its existing funds and used to support and expand programs to revitalize inner city neighborhoods.
– In addition, the Forest City/Harrah’s development proposal will give a total of more than $1 million a year through a foundation to support the community. Half of the funds must be used in neighborhoods with a 60 percent or higher minority population. Franco Harris will lead the effort to give these funds back to the community. This money will be made available as soon as the license is secured.
“I am excited to be part of the Forest City/Harrah’s team,” said Franco Harris, a partner in the development. “I’ve lived and played in this community for years and I believe these two companies bring the expertise and strengths that Pittsburgh needs to make gaming successful. This partnership will help Pittsburgh and our communities continue to grow and improve. If the gaming commission selects Forest City and Harrah’s, I am honored to be the President of the foundation and serve our City.”
“With more than $1 billion of proposed investment, Forest City and Harrah’s have the strongest and most comprehensive development plan and the potential for the most tax revenues,” said Brian Ratner, a Director of Forest City Enterprises.
“Harrah’s is excited about the opportunity to join the Pittsburgh community,” said Jan Jones, senior vice president of communications and government relations for Harrah’s. “As the largest and most established company in gaming, Harrah’s has a long track record of attracting tourists and business to communities across the nation. Station Square already attracts 2.5 million visitors annually; we’re confident we can take business to an even greater level by marketing Pittsburgh to millions of loyal Harrah’s customers across the nation. The experience of this team and the quality of this location are second to none, and create the greatest potential to maximize tax revenues and economic benefits for this community and this state.”
Harrah’s Total Rewards(R) customer loyalty program is unsurpassed in the industry. With more than 40 million members, the program is the centerpiece of Harrah’s national, cross-property marketing strategy. Total Rewards allows members to earn and redeem credits for their play at any one of Harrah’s 36 casinos worldwide. The program is augmented by Harrah’s customer relationship management efforts that helps provide a customized entertainment experience to every Harrah’s customer.
Forest City and Harrah’s will create thousands of good paying jobs. A study conducted by Christiansen Capital Advisors projects the creation of 10,377 jobs with total wages of $321.5 million in the first year of operations. The study also projects gaming tax revenues of $180.7 million to Pennsylvania and $10.6 million each for Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh in the first year of operations. About $155 million of the property’s revenues are projected to come from customers coming from outside Allegheny County.
“The plan outlined today is a positive for Pittsburgh and will create thousands of good paying jobs from both the completion and operation of the development,” said Rich Stanizzo, business manager, head of the Building Allied Trade Council.
Harrah’s will also work closely with Bill Strickland and his team at the Bidwell Training Center on the North Side in a partnership to train its projected 2,000 employees.
At the press event, Forest City and Harrah’s unveiled renderings of the proposed development, as well as information about Harrah’s Responsible Gaming policy and training program and its Code of Commitment. These policies have set the gaming industry’s standard for social responsibility and focus on responsible gaming, business integrity, volunteerism and commitment to communities across the nation.
DKS Associates, a national recognized transportation engineer, in conjunction with Pittsburgh’s GAI Consultants developed a transportation impact study that showed the strengths of this location. Station Square is the only site that benefits from all types of available transportation: water taxis, the Light Rail “T”, the Incline, buses, cars, and even bicycles and pedestrian access. The location also offers direct access from the Interstate off the Fort Pitt Bridge, creating a smooth flow of vehicles and access to parking.
About Harrah’s Entertainment Inc.
Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. is the world’s largest provider of branded casino entertainment through operating subsidiaries. Since its beginning in Reno, Nevada 68 years ago, Harrah’s has grown through development of new properties, expansions and acquisitions. Harrah’s Entertainment is focused on building loyalty and value with its customers through a unique combination of great service, excellent products, unsurpassed distribution, operational excellence and technology leadership. More information about Harrah’s is available at its Web site – www.harrahs.com.
About Forest City Enterprises
Forest City Enterprises, Inc. is a $7.8 billion NYSE-listed national real estate company. The Company is principally engaged in the ownership, development, management and acquisition of commercial and residential real estate throughout the United States.
Safe Harbor Language
Statements made in this news release that state the Company or management’s intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations or predictions of the future are forward-looking statements. It is important to note that the Company’s actual results could differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward- looking statements include, but are not limited to, real estate development and investment risks, economic conditions in the Company’s target markets, reliance on major tenants, the impact of terrorist acts, the Company’s substantial leverage and the ability to service debt, guarantees under the Company’s credit facility, changes in interest rates, continued availability of tax-exempt government financing, the sustainability of substantial operations at the subsidiary level, significant geographic concentration, illiquidity of real estate investments, dependence on rental income from real property, conflicts of interest, competition, potential liability from syndicated properties, effects of uninsured loss, environmental liabilities, partnership risks, litigation risks, risks associated with an investment in a professional sports franchise, and other risk factors as disclosed from time to time in the Company’s SEC filings, including, but not limited to, the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2005.
SOURCE Forest City Enterprises
Kelley Denny
Lynn Seay
prwerks
412-352-9240, or 412-918-0094
for Forest City Enterprises -
Station Square slots casino details unveiled
By Bill Toland,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Monday, January 23, 2006Harrah’s and Forest City Enterprises unveiled their Station Square casino plans today, proposing a $512 million casino, more than 1,200 condominium units and several hundred new hotel rooms, a sweeping facelift of what is already considered Pittsburgh’s top tourist destination.
In all, the companies are proposing $1 billion in new development. Construction could begin immediately after the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board awards the casino licenses, said Jan Jones, a senior vice president with Harrah’s and former mayor of Las Vegas. Harrah’s and Forest City are in competition with three other outfits, all of which are seeking the lone license available for a casino to be built within Pittsburgh’s city limits. Harrah’s and Forest City are considered one of two frontrunners, the other being the Isle of Capri, a riverboat casino company that has partnered with the Pittsburgh Penguins and pledged to build a new hockey venue to replace Mellon Arena.
Forest City has made no such pledge. The main community investment component of the Forest City plan is a $25 million endowment for the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation and a $1 million community investment fund that would be headed by former Steelers running back Franco Harris.
The Harrah’s casino complex, with 400,000 square feet of floor space, is roughly the size of seven football fields and is the largest of the casinos so far proposed for the City of Pittsburgh. The casino would sit on the west side of the Station Square complex, displacing the concert amphitheater that sits there now.
The condominium towers would be to the east of the Smithfield Street Bridge, likely displacing the warehouse building that is now home to several nightclubs.
More details in tomorrow’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
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Harrah’s Announces Casino Plan In Station Square – Plan Features $512 Million Casino
WPXI.com 8:09 pm EST January 23, 2006
PITTSBURGH — On Monday, Harrah’s announced its plan to put a casino in Station Square if it gets the stand-alone slots license.
Harrah’s announced that it is partnering with Forest City Enterprises, the owner of Station Square, to build a mixed-use residential and entertainment community, alongside of the existing Station Square complex.
The $1 billion dollar investment, will feature a $512 million casino, with 3,000 slot machines and over 1,200 condo units.
Future expansion will allow for a 300 to 500 room hotel tower.
“It’s about driving economic development, about driving revenues”, said Brian Ratner, a director of Forrest City Enterprises.
The casino complex could ultimately accommodate over 5,000 slot machines and will create over 10,000 jobs.
Unlike the Isle of Capri deal, recently announced with the Penguins’ ownership, there are no plans to fund a new arena, should Forest City and Harrah’s be awarded a gambling license.
Copyright 2006 by Wpxi.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Courtesy of WPXI.
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Developer applauds O’Connor
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW REAL ESTATE WRITER
Friday, January 13, 2006Local developer Ralph Falbo was pleased to learn Thursday that Mayor Bob O’Connor is willing to listen to multiple proposals for revitalizing the Fifth-Forbes corridor Downtown.
Falbo, who would like to put a residential/grocery/retail store project in the vacant G.C. Murphy building at the entry point to Market Square, is one of several local and national developers who say they’d be interested in taking a stab at projects in that key area of Downtown.
“I think it’s high time that this is opened up to a lot of different people,” said Falbo yesterday, the day after O’Connor disclosed his intentions during a meeting with Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporters and editors.
O’Connor said he still is willing to consider a master development plan being prepared for a group of city-owned properties along Fifth Avenue by Madison Marquette, a major Washington, D.C. based developer.
But while Madison Marquette continues to prepare its plan, he will welcome proposals from other developers and then determine what’s the best deal for the city.
“We have spent a great deal of time putting together a proposal,” said Falbo, whose company is building 151 FirstSide, an 18-story, 82-unit upscale condominium project Downtown.
He hopes to meet with officials of O’Connor’s administration next month to discuss the new project, which he first introduced early last year.
The mayor would be well-served to listen to Falbo, and other developers with viable ideas for projects Downtown, said Aaron Stauber, managing director of Rugby Realty Co., of Tieterboro, N.J.
“You should look at what’s been happening in the Cultural District over the last several years, just by doing development piece by piece,” said Stauber, whose company has been involved in several of those projects.
Rugby, which owns more than 10 city properties, including the Gulf Tower, Manor and Frick buildings, also would be interested in projects along Fifth and Forbes avenues, Stauber said.
“We would be eager to have conversations with Mayor O’Connor and his team regarding this subject,” said R. Damian Soffer, owner and president of Soffer Organization.
Soffer, whose 34-acre SouthSide Works project has revitalized a former steel mill site on the South Side, said the success of the project demonstrates urban renewal can work.
O’Connor’s decision also was welcomed by Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
The preservationist organization, which developed the successful Station Square complex on the South Side, recently offered to assist the city in preserving and providing development expertise for three deteriorated but historically significant buildings on Market Street and Fifth.
“Various developers have called me and expressed great interest in reuse of historic buildings in the corridor,” said Ziegler, who did not identify the companies involved.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
Images and text copyright © 2004 by The Tribune-Review Publishing Co.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review