Category Archive: Neighborhood Development
-
PNC Bank Invests $5 million Loan in Landmarks Community Capital Corporation
PHLF News
July 24, 2008PNC Bank, a member of The PNC Financial Services Group, has invested a $5 million loan in Landmarks Community Capital Corporation’s Urban Economic Loan Fund. The Urban Economic Loan Fund provides short-term flexible financing at below market rates to non-profit organizations involved in revitalizing their communities.
Dr. Howard B. Slaughter, Jr., Chief Executive Officer of Landmarks Community Capital Corporation (LCCC) said, “This first investment in the Urban Economic Loan Fund will be the catalyst for more development in urban markets throughout Pittsburgh, where an economic stimulus is important for neighborhood revitalization, which advances more stability and creates viable places to live and work. We are appreciative of PNC’s willingness to invest in the Fund and have already made commitments to utilize this funding.”
“LCCC has already demonstrated its ability to effectively finance urban development,” said Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. “This significant investment from PNC will allow Dr. Slaughter to help reverse the disinvestment in Pittsburgh’s urban cores and be a differentiating factor in supporting the financing of Pittsburgh’s urban fabric – exponentially and strategically. This will be critical for sustainable urban revitalization.”
Congressman Mike Doyle stated, “This initiative is another important contribution to the revitalization of our community. I want to commend PNC Bank and Landmarks Community Capital Corporation for working together on this Urban Economic Loan Fund.”
City Councilman Ricky Burgess, whose district this is said, “PNC has consistently committed themselves to the communities of the City of Pittsburgh. I am confident that this worthy loan investment will be of great benefit to the urban cores of our great city, and will encourage other organizations to follow suit. My sincere thanks to PNC and Landmarks Community Capital Corporation for their efforts.”
“Landmarks Community Capital Corporation’s loan program supports PNC’s goal of strengthening communities through investments and partnerships with local organizations,” said Linda F. Morris, Senior Vice President & Western Pennsylvania Market Manager, PNC Bank. “Our commitment makes it possible for Landmarks Community Capital Corporation to offer below-market interest rates on loans, which will stimulate initiatives in affordable housing and community development. These are sustainable projects that should have a positive ripple effect throughout the region.”
State Representative Joe Preston said, “I am very pleased that PNC continues to support
the neighborhoods. First by providing banking services, and now reinvesting their dollars in the communities. The leadership at PNC and Landmarks Community Capital Corporation are greatly appreciated.”
State Representative Jim Ferlo stated, “Once again PNC has made a strong statement demonstrating their commitment to the neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. This is a real win-win for our City because we can have the utmost confidence in the stewardship of this commitment as well.
Landmarks Community Capital Corporation’s track record of investment speaks clearly to their dedication to quality projects that meet with their high standards for preservation, sustainability, and green building principles.
I am very excited by what can be achieved through PNC’s outstanding commitment and I applaud Dr. Slaughter’s continued efforts on behalf of Pittsburgh neighborhood reinvestment.”
Scheduled speakers at the press conference include: Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Mayor of Pittsburgh; Mr. Charlie Batch – President & CEO Batch Development Company, Inc. and Landmarks Community Capital Corporation Board Member; Honorable Ricky Burgess, Pittsburgh City Council District 9; Ms. Linda Morris, Senior Vice President & Western Pennsylvania Market Manager, PNC Bank; Dr. Howard B. Slaughter, Jr. , CEO, Landmarks Community Capital Corporation; Honorable Joseph Preston, Pennsylvania House of Representatives District 24; Honorable Jim Ferlo, Pennsylvania State Senate District 38, Mr. Doug Smith, Sr. Vice-President, Wilbur Smith Associates and Chair, Landmarks Community Capital Corporation Board.
-
Landmarks expand reach with $5 million loan from PNC
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, July 24, 2008A $5 million loan will help Landmarks Community Capital Corp. spark more development in urban neighborhoods in the Pittsburgh area.The loan by PNC Bank to Landmarks Community Capital’s Urban Economic Loan Fund will be announced today in Homewood by the nonprofit investment company and PNC.“This first investment in the Urban Economic Loan Fund will be the catalyst for more development in urban markets throughout Pittsburgh,” said Howard B. Slaughter Jr., CEO of Landmarks Community Capital.
“We are appreciative of PNC’s willingness to invest in the fund and have already made commitments to utilize this funding.”
Landmarks Community Capital is considering Homewood for one of its next investments, Slaughter said. PNC is the only banking company with a branch there, he said.”Homewood is a key urban market, and we wanted to come to the neighborhood to spark more interest in development there,” he said.
Prior to the PNC investment, the corporation has been using funds from its Preservation Loan Fund, Saughter said. The corporation is an offshoot of The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
Those investments have included a $462,000 low-interest loan to Friendship Development Associates to build three loft-style residential units in the Bloomfield-Garfield area, and $160,000 loan to help the Hosanna House social service organization restructure financing and initiate additional development in Wilkinsburg.
The corporation also loaned $885,000 to the East Liberty Development Inc. to help build 35 condominiums at the historic former YMCA building in East Liberty and four condos in Queen Anne-style homes being rehabilitated on Rippey Street.
“Our commitment makes it possible for Landmarks Community Capital Corp. to offer below-market interest rates on loans, which will stimulate initiatives in affordable housing and community development,” said Linda F. Morris, senior vice president and Western Pennsylvania market manager for PNC.
Ron DaParma can be reached atrdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
-
LCCC Helps With Vacant Lots
On Thursday, July 17th, Josie Bryant, Parish Social Minister for St. James Church and founder of Stone Soup and Serenity Community Gardens in Wilkinsburg, received something she’s been waiting for for over five years.
In cooperation with St. James Church and Home Depot, Landmarks Community Capital Corporation (LCCC) orchestrated the purchase of a riding lawnmower to help Josie and her volunteers tackle the difficult task of maintaining many of the vacant lots on Franklin Ave in Wilkinsburg, in addition to maintaining the community gardens she and so many have worked hard to get started. Josie’s grassroots initiatives are a vital component in fostering Wilkinsburg’s revitalization.
-
Councilman protests forced preservation of Malta Temple
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, July 15, 2008Forcing the Salvation Army to preserve an 81-year-old North Side religious and social services center would violate a city rule that says a church’s owner — not interlopers — must willingly seek historic protection, a Pittsburgh councilman said Monday.”Churches have an inherent right to have control over their own property,” said the Rev. Ricky Burgess, a councilman and pastor of Nazarene Baptist Church in Homewood. “They have autonomy in terms of seeking historic designation.”To back up his claim, Burgess cited a 2003 amendment to the city’s historic preservation law sponsored by then-Councilman Bob O’Connor.
The amendment states: “Nomination of a religious structure shall only be made by the owner(s) of record of the religious structure.”
A religious structure is defined as a “place of religious worship.”O’Connor fought for the amendment under the belief that some churches can’t afford to make repairs or facade improvements to comply with historic preservation standards.
Burgess said Sunday church services have been held regularly for nearly 35 years in the Salvation Army-owned property commonly known as the Malta Temple building because it is the former headquarters of the Ancient and Illustrious Order of the Knights of Malta.
The nonprofit Mexican War Street Society, a historic preservation group, nominated the Malta Temple for historic protection in January to prevent the Salvation Army from demolishing it.
The city Planning Commission and Historic Review Commission approved the nomination. It faces a preliminary vote Wednesday before City Council.
David McMunn, president of the society, said the Malta Temple is zoned as a commercial structure, not as a church. Allegheny County assessment records confirm that.
McMunn said tearing down the stately brick building at 100 W. North Ave. and replacing it with a modern building nearby would remove an important thread from the North Side’s already frayed historic fabric.
McMunn and other historic preservationists want the building to be renovated.
“The Salvation Army has first and foremost been a place of worship,” said Maj. Jim LaBossiere, Allegheny County coordinator for the organization.
LaBossiere agreed with Burgess’ argument.
He said religious services are held at 9:30 and 11:30 every Sunday morning in the Malta Temple building. The center doubles as a daytime homeless shelter where the indigent can receive lunch, counseling and use shower and laundry facilities.
Salvation Army officials have said previously that renovations would be too costly and that the building isn’t large enough to accommodate plans for additional worship, classroom, gymnasium and computer lab space.
“They don’t seem to see the need to partner with the neighborhood,” McMunn said. “Well, they need to because, as residents, we’re here forever.”
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.comor 412-765-2312.
-
Urban Redevelopment Authority completes Millcraft deal
By staff and wire reports
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Tuesday, July 8, 2008The Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority completed the $2.31 million sale of five Downtown buildings, including the former G.C. Murphy store, to Washington County developer Millcraft Industries Inc.The deal was completed June 30 and deeds recorded July 3 in Allegheny County. The authority board approved the sale at its June 12 meeting. The properties will comprise Millcraft’s Market Square Place project, a mixed-use development that will include the future home of the Greater Pittsburgh YMCA.The Bedell Building, the Headgear Building, the Candyrama Building and the D&K Building, at the Fifth and Forbes corridor, are included in the sale.
-
Buhl Building ready for its closeup
Friday, July 04, 2008
The Buhl Building long has been one of Downtown’s unsung background buildings, a fantasy in blue and white that you could only enjoy by craning your neck up, up, up. No more.
Since the demolition of buildings in the triangle where Fifth and Liberty avenues meet, the Buhl Building has taken on a cameo role in the Market Square city historic district. Its new visibility promises to be long-lasting because PNC, which is putting up the glass and steel tower across Fifth Avenue, won’t build on the triangle and instead will develop it as a small park.
Completed in 1913, the Buhl Building at 200 Fifth Ave. is clad in classical terra-cotta ornament, but not the usual cream-on-cream variety. The architect, Janssen & Abbott, called for blue and cream glazed tiles, and it’s a tour de force of urns, swags, plates and cartouches — a tapestry of Wedgwood Jasperware on a grand scale.
“How improbable this large-windowed but narrow six-story Renaissance Revival office tower must have seemed, covered in blue and white tile like an Italianate wedding cake in a then dark and sooty city,” former Post-Gazette art and architecture critic Donald Miller wrote in his 1997 book, “The Architecture of Benno Janssen.”
The client was Schenley Farms developer Franklin Nicola, and it was first called the Nicola Building. In the same few years, between 1909 and 1916, Janssen’s firm also was designing the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, Masonic Temple, William Penn Hotel and another terra-cotta building — a 13-story addition to Kaufmann’s department store.
By as early as 1923, the Nicola Building had a new owner — Henry Buhl Jr., partner in Boggs & Buhl department store on the North Side and founder of the Buhl Foundation. By the 1960s, if not earlier, the first-floor exterior had been renovated in dark, stark granite, so at street level there’s no hint of what we imagine was a light and lively original treatment. What a lift it must have been to walk along Fifth Avenue and see the hand of the craftsman.
But whose work was it? Were the tiles stock patterns made distinctive by the dichromatic glazing, or were they, more likely, custom-designed for the building by one of Janssen’s draftsmen? By 1909 there were about 15 makers of architectural terra cotta in the eastern United States. There’s no definitive proof in the Janssen papers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Architecture Archives, so we may never know.
A cream terra-cotta-clad building on the opposite side of Fifth Avenue, originally the Reymer’s Building, was demolished to make way for the PNC tower, so there is some karmic balance in the revelation of the Buhl Building — and more reason than ever to return its first floor to something closer to the original.
“Our intention is to remove the granite and put back the tall windows,” which were arched, said Nick Nicholas, who bought the building with Jim Patrinos in December.
The challenge is what to do with the upper floors, said Nicholas, who also owns Nicholas Coffee in Market Square.
They are considering office space or apartments or perhaps a combination of the two, but they may have to wait for the market to come to them. The Buhl Building is on the National Register of Historic Places, so the project will benefit from a 20 percent federal tax credit. The owners have given Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation an easement on the facade, so it’s protected in perpetuity.
“If we restore it to a boutique building, it could be the best little boutique building Downtown, but how do we get small upscale businesses to take it?” Nicholas said. “You’ve got to almost wait until PNC and Murphy’s are done and maybe they’ll be knocking on our door for space there.”
Millcraft Industries soon will begin to convert the former G.C. Murphy Co. store into 46 apartments, a relocated YMCA and first-floor retail space.
Architecture critic Patricia Lowry can be reached at plowry@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1590.First published on July 4, 2008 at 12:00 am -
Market Square street closure may alter apartment project
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, July 3, 2008The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, a major investor in Market Square’s revitalization, might nix a new seven-unit apartment complex if the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership sticks to a plan to close some of the square to vehicles.The foundation is spending $3.5 million to renovate three vacant buildings on Graeme Street into Market at Fifth, a plan for seven upper-floor apartments, a ground-floor restaurant and a rooftop garden.
The partnership’s plan would close Graeme, the apartments’ entrance, and nearby McMasters Way as part of a $4.8 million to $5 million Market Square overhaul that, so far, has gone smoothly.
“We do not see how people are going to want to rent apartments on a dead-end street. People do not frequent dead-end streets,” said attorney Anne E. Nelson, who voiced the concerns at a meeting of the city Historic Review Commission.
“If Graeme Street is closed, Landmarks does not know whether it should complete construction of the project,” Nelson said.Arthur P. Ziegler, the foundation’s president, said there’s time to develop the apartments as something else if a compromise can’t be reached and the street is closed.The commission approved Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership’s preliminary plans for Market Square, but members urged the partnership, a nonprofit that represents Downtown business owners, to find a solution with the foundation.
“We’re going to do what’s best for the square,” said Dina Klavon, the designer the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership hired to guide Market Square’s overhaul.
Klavon said she’s open to changes and plans to meet with Pittsburgh History & Landmarks officials.
“We’re trying to give Market Square back to the pedestrian,” said Mike Edwards, president of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. “Right now it’s a thoroughfare. We want it to be a destination.”
Edwards said renovation of Market Square could start in spring.
The most striking feature about Klavon’s design is that it would make Market Square resemble a one-level European piazza.
The roadway would be flush with sidewalks and outdoor cafes, which would be differentiated by using various types of pavement and cobblestone.
Traffic and parking would be permitted on the perimeter of the square. No traffic would be allowed in the middle, where Market Street and Forbes Avenue meet.
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.comor 412-765-2312.
-
Historic review panel OKs Market Square makeover
Thursday, July 03, 2008By Rich Lord,Pittsburgh Post-GazetteWork on pedestrian-friendly project might begin next spring
The proposed $5 million revamp of Market Square got a boost yesterday when Pittsburgh’s Historic Review Commission gushed over the reduced traffic, piazza-type design and nicer trees.
“This will be a miniature Parisian square,” said commission Vice Chairman Paul Tellers, whose motion to approve was unanimously adopted.
The commission put one condition on its approval: It wants project architect Dina Klavon to meet with the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation to discuss concerns about the closing of alleys running from the square to Fifth Avenue.
The foundation is spending $3.5 million renovating four buildings near the square, and some of the second- and third-floor apartments would be accessed via one of the alleys, Graeme Way.
“If people want to drop other people off, or unload things to their apartments, they can’t get there,” said Anne E. Nelson, the foundation’s attorney.
Also closed to cars would be McMasters Way. Cars would be able to enter the square using Forbes Avenue and Market Street, and could drive around its perimeter. They could no longer drive through its center.
“We’re trying to give Market Square back to the pedestrians,” said Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership President Mike Edwards, whose group is leading the charge to repair the square. “Right now, it’s a thoroughfare. We want it to be a destination.”
The redesign would replace the network of streets, curbs and raised tree planters with a flat, curbless surface. Commission members questioned whether that would be safe, but accepted Ms. Klavon’s contention that paving walkways with brick, plaza areas with terrazzo and streets with granite squares called Eurocobble would safely separate people from cars.
They also wondered whether “interactive” lighting that changes as people walk by it was really necessary to create a “wow factor.”
“The elegance will be the wow factor,” said commission Chairman Michael Stern.
Construction could start in the spring, said Mr. Edwards.
Rich Lord can be reached at rlord@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1542.First published on July 3, 2008 at 12:00 am