Category Archive: News Wire Services
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Former church in West Tarentum caught up in fraud scandal
By Celanie Polanick
VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH
Thursday, July 3, 2008A former Roman Catholic church in West Tarentum was one of two in the Greater Pittsburgh area bought by Raffaello Follieri, an Italian real estate mogul recently accused of fraud for pretending to work for the Vatican.A century ago, St. Clement’s Church on West Ninth Avenue and Center Street was beautiful and beloved, filled with a blossoming faith community, according to historical accounts. But, like so many other churches, membership declined over the decades.After St. Clement’s closed in 2006, one of Follieri’s numerous corporations — CV12 216 W. Ninth Avenue LLC — bought the property in January 2007.
Follieri was arrested last week by federal investigators and accused of improperly spending money from investors, who believed he represented the Vatican’s financial and land interests.Now, local officials say, they’re not sure what will happen to St. Clement’s.Men from the Vatican
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, from June 2005 through June 2007, Follieri ran a fraudulent real estate investment scheme, claiming that he had close connections with the Vatican — enabling him to purchase Catholic church properties at prices well below their market value.
He allegedly told people he formally was appointed by the Vatican to manage its financial affairs. Investigators say he raised investment capital for an “Italian office” that didn’t exist, including $800,000 on bogus “engineering reports” and other falsified business expenses.
Federal prosecutors say they have ample evidence that he spent as much as $6 million from his investors on a jet-setting lifestyle for himself, a girlfriend and others. The girlfriend is said to be actress Anne Hathaway, who dated Follieri for four years. Tabloid reports say the pair split last week.
Follieri is charged with various counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. If he receives the maximum sentence, Follieri would spend life in prison and pay millions of dollars in fines.
A federal district court judge set Follieri’s bail at $21 million — $16 million must be in cash or property. Follieri also must relinquish his passport and get five other people to co-sign, assuming responsibility if he tries to escape. At press time, he was still in federal custody.
Undervalued
When Follieri’s company bought the former St. Clement’s property from the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh in January 2007, it was valued at $407, 000 — $337,000 for the building and $70,000 for the 23,000 square feet of adjoining land. Follieri, though, paid only $252,000 for it, according to Allegheny County records.
Follieri’s company also bought St. Patrick’s in Alpsville, Allegheny County, said the Rev. Ron Lengwin, diocesan spokesman.
“We were prepared to sell them (other unused properties), but it never got that far,” Lengwin said.
Follieri’s representatives did not tell diocesan officials they had ties to the Vatican, said Lengwin.
“Any church official could tell who was from the Vatican and who was not,” he said.
The property was sold to Follieri at the reduced price because “when you sell a piece of property that no one else wants, you have to sell it to the person who wants to buy it for what they’re willing to pay,” Lengwin said.
By the end of the year, the property was back on the market for $425,000.
The marketing agent trying to sell it, James Kelly of Grubb & Ellis in Pittsburgh, said he could not comment, as part of his contract with Follieri’s company.
Multiple calls to Follieri Group’s main switchboard were forwarded by a receptionist to a non-working number.
Tarentum Borough Manager Bill Rossey said he had heard about Follieri but didn’t know he owned the former St. Clement’s property and had heard nothing about what might happen to it now.
According to staff at the U.S. Marshals’ Department of Asset Forfeiture, if Follieri is convicted of obtaining his assets fraudulently or using legitimately obtained assets to commit a crime, those assets could be seized and sold to pay restitution to the people he cheated. Other options include a plea agreement to sell the properties and liquidate the assets to pay restitution or other penalties.
At last estimate, the building needs about $400,000 in work before it could be used again, including the roof and mildew removal, said local Catholic historian Charles “Skip” Culleiton of New Kensington.
Former parishioners and local Catholics probably would like to see the building used to provide some social service or for another purpose that could improve the community, which is what Follieri’s corporation originally promised, Culleiton said.
“That would probably make (parishoners, Catholics) them feel better about the whole thing,” Culleiton said.
Celanie Polanick can be reached atcpolanick@tribweb.com or 724-226-4702
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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 -
Market Square’s makeover shifts into high gear this week
Monday, June 30, 2008Market Square’s transition is in full swing.
Dunkin Donuts opens there at 6 a.m. today. Moe’s Southwest Grill will open Thursday. A dark, romantic bar is to follow later this summer.
In addition, a veteran restaurant, Buon Giorno, is dressing up for a higher profile. Renovations are ongoing to add a second-story deck that has passed the city’s historic review. And the former Mick McGuire’s will become a wine, cheese and dessert bar called Sante — with an accent on the “e” — later this summer beside the 1902 Landmark Tavern.
Of Sante, Mike Edwards, president and chief executive officer of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, said, “It is supposed to be very romantic. So dark you have to be close” to see each other.
Dunkin Donuts brings another choice of coffee and baked goods within a stone’s throw of Nicholas Coffee, Crazy Mocha, Bruegger’s Bagel Bakery and Starbucks.
When questioned about a possible glut of caffeine choices, Robin Frederick, vice president of marketing and human resources for Dunkin Donuts, said Market Square was an attractive site for the company’s expansion.
“We’re going to do what we do best and hope they do too,” she said of the competitors.
Mr. Edwards said Market Square’s renovation plans have generated “a lot of public buy-in and set a direction for investors to make confident decisions.” He said the years of debate over the Fifth and Forbes make-over stagnated Market Square’s.
“Now we have direction,” he said, citing a $1 million “Paris-to-Pittsburgh” grant from the Colcom Foundation to match up to $25,000 the cost of any restaurant renovation that opens it to the outside. The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership is administering the grants, which will enable “use of the city the way it should be used, not just as an office park.”
The Paris-to-Pittsburgh grants target Downtown merchants only, he said, adding that Moe’s Southwest Grill “is probably the best use of it.”
Moe’s co-owner Mike Geiger said the restaurant will open to the outside with three bays of windows, each 15 feet wide, and six retractable awnings. It will be the first Moe’s in the city, with four others in the region.
Buon Giorno and Mixstirs, a casual restaurant that offers a range of smoothies, are also going for the Parisian look, and Mr. Edwards said other restaurants have expressed interest.
True to its name, the square becomes a marketplace every Thursday through Oct. 23, with vendors selling fresh produce, baked goods, salsas and other items, from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The Fifth and Market project, in which Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation has invested, is also under way and will include several condominiums.
“There’s a maturing going on in Downtown Pittsburgh,” said Mr. Edwards, citing restaurants that have broadened and elevated diners’ tastes. “All the huge, great wonderful projects are important,” he said, but the smaller ones are the connective tissue that will keep making the city compelling.
Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626.First published on June 30, 2008 at 12:00 am -
Cathedral of Learning trumpets education
By Bill Zlatos
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, June 29, 2008The Cathedral of Learning was constructed of Indiana limestone and built with the pennies, nickel and dimes of area schoolchildren.John G. Bowman, then chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, came up with the idea for a tower in 1921.
“He wanted a tall building because his intention was the children of working men and women of Pittsburgh would see the tower and be inspired to get an education,” said Albert Tannler, historical collections director at the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
But there was the issue of money. The cost of the building was estimated at $10 million to $15 million, a hefty sum in those days.
In 1925, Marcus Aaron, chairman of the city’s board of education, summoned the district’s teachers to start a “Buy a Brick” campaign. The teachers told students to give 10 cents to Pitt and tell the university how they earned it. The children would get a certificate indicating they owned a piece of the building.As a result, 97,000 certificates were issued.Parents also gave. In 1926, Bowman went to a meeting of steelworkers and their families in Carnegie to promote his tower.
“A woman stood up with a baby in her arms and said, ‘We got no money, but we’ll go without meat for a week and give you that money.’ Then a man stood up and said, ‘I’ll wear this suit another year and give you the money,’ ” said Maxine Bruhns, director of Pitt’s Nationality Rooms and Intercultural Exchange Programs, who is working on a DVD, “The Story Behind the Construction of the Cathedral of Learning.”
The cathedral is home to 27 Nationality Rooms, which showcase the culture of the ethnic groups that built Pittsburgh.
The steel skeleton of the building was erected in 1929. After the stock market crashed, the 52-story design was shortened to 40. Still, it was the tallest academic building in the world when it was finished in 1937. It remains the biggest in the United States.
“It was a triumph,” Bruhns said, “symbolizing that those parallel lines going skyward never meet and education never ends.”
Bill Zlatos can be reached at bzlatos@tribweb.com or 412-320-7828.
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$80 million Schenley tab challenged
By Christian Morrow
June 27, 2008
The New Pittsburgh Courier -
School board votes to close Schenley building
Thursday, June 26, 2008 -
Children’s Museum still looking to grow
Thursday, June 26, 2008At 25, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh has grown into a mature nonprofit and community leader — although it’s still all about kids.
Originally called the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, it was on the leading edge of a wave of children’s museums that began opening around the country in the ’80s.
The idea for a children’s museum here dates back to 1972, when a group of community leaders established The Pittsburgh Children’s Museum Project — a mobile traveling museum that started at the Three Rivers Arts Festival.
The physical space opened its doors in the basement of the historic North Side post office building in Allegheny Center in June 1983. The Junior League of Pittsburgh got the project off the ground. Two years later, it expanded to the rest of the building, quadrupling its space and housing an exhibit of puppets from the collection of puppeteer Margo Lovelace.
The ’90s brought other key developments. The Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation deeded the post office building to the museum. The museum launched several educational outreach programs and hosted its first traveling exhibit — “Kidsbridge.” In 1995, another traveling exhibit built around the works of “Sesame Street” creator Jim Henson set attendance records at the museum. In ’98, the museum created a major traveling exhibit of its own: “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood — A Hands-On Exhibit.” There were two traveling versions of the Rogers exhibit. One is now part of the museum’s permanent collection; the other was donated to the New Orleans Children’s Museum in 2007.
The 21st century also has been a period of ambitious growth. In 2004, the museum expanded again into the former Buhl Planetarium building next door. The museum exceeded its goal in the $28 million capital campaign that funded the expansion, but there were challenges and hurdles, recalls then-board president Anne Lewis, who led the expansion effort and who is now board member emeritus.
“The long-term vision was always to create a community for kids,” Lewis says. “That meant the entire area needed to be brought back with economic development. We knew we had to become the leader and the catalyst for change.”
“The expansion allowed us to do things we’ve always dreamed of doing,” says Children’s Museum executive director Jane Werner.
Increased exhibition space and parking space have raised attendance: This year, the museum set a new attendance record, with a projected 228,000 admissions for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.
“People are looking at the Children’s Museum as a new model of how to do children’s museums,” Werner says. “It’s been really fun to push those boundaries and try different things. We’ve enjoyed working with artists and taking chances.”
The museum places high priority on designing and building its own exhibits. “In the ’80s, people started to drift away from that and go with outside consultants,” Werner says. “We decided that we really wanted to stay in-house and make sure that our exhibits worked. We’ve gone back to that, and I think people are seeing the value in it.”
Looking ahead to the future, the museum and its neighboring institutions are poised for new growth. The Children’s Museum is in the middle of a $22 million capital campaign to raise the funds to create a green park space in the plaza area in front of the museum, extending the kid- and family-friendly environment outdoors and creating an example of how urban spaces can be green by using bioswales — landscaping elements that use plants to remove pollutants from runoff.
The Children’s Museum is also spearheading the Charm Bracelet Project, an effort to link North Side cultural organizations and create a unified cultural district in that neighborhood.
Lewis is enthusiastic about the museum’s future plans. “You want to bring that experience outside, so that synergy between inside and what’s outside becomes welcoming for kids.”
Adrian McCoy can be reached at amccoy@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1865.First published on June 26, 2008 at 12:00 am -
Point Park University Alumnus Howard B. Slaughter Jr. – Catalyst for Community Growth and Development
by Colleen C. Derda
The Point Magazine, Spring 2008
Point Park UniversityHoward B. Slaughter Jr., D.Sc. (MBA ’01), is enjoying his latest riverfront views. From the offices of Landmarks Community Capital Corp. in Station Square, he can see down the Monongahela River toward Point State Park.
“This office has a great view of Pittsburgh architecture,” says Dr. Slaughter, a man who appreciates old buildings and knows what it takes to restore them. His extensive financing background focuses on economic development and housing developments in urban areas.
Slaughter heads the new Landmarks Community Capital Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, which provides equity, debt and short-and intermediate-term financing for housing and economic development activities throughout Western
Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. The nonprofit corporation also aims to pursue public policy initiatives and public-private partnerships as well as utilize such tools as new market tax credits to bring additional capital into the region.
“We have the opportunity to be a catalyst for change,” he says. “Typically we are ‘first in and first out,’ often taking the greatest financial risk, to help move developments forward. We require collateral, but we are a non-traditional lender, with the flexibility to help make revitalization a reality.”
Landmarks Community Capital Corp. recently approved a $885,000 loan leveraging a $7-million revitalization condo development in East Liberty. Working through East Liberty Development Inc., the funding will help transform a former YMCA into condominiums and retail space. Landmarks Community Capital Corp. is also working to attract a supermarket to Pittsburgh’s Hill District, among other unique development projects.
“We have an experienced staff, reflecting ethnic diversity, which helps us to be as effective as possible and to effectuate positive change,” stresses the chief executive officer. “Not only urban neighborhoods, but rural communities can benefit from the corporation’s funding. We work within a 250-mile radius of Pittsburgh.”
Slaughter’s approach to community lending integrates historic preservation as a stimulus for economic development. He previously served as director of preservation services at the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation before being appointed director of Fannie Mae’s Pittsburgh Community Business Center, the largest source of home financing in the country. His background also includes a stint as a vice president of community development at Dollar Bank, where he led the bank to its first “Outstanding” Community Reinvestment Act rating.
Slaughter was recently appointed treasurer of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and renominated by Gov. Ed Rendell (and unanimously confirmed by the Pennsylvania State Senate) to the Board of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency board. He also serves on the board of the Pennsylvania Community Development Bank. His extensive educational background, which includes five degrees, includes a master of business administration from Point Park.
“I am pleased to have had the opportunity to take advantage of what Point Park offered.
I attended the master’s degree program all day every Saturday for an entire year. It was a commitment, but it enhanced my educational goals and fit my needs well,” says Slaughter, who also holds a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University’s H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management and a doctorate in information systems and communication from Robert Morris University.
Slaughter can see a bit of Point Park University from his Station Square office. “I’ve been watching Point Park transform,” he says. “The changes are exciting and a real benefit to the urban core of this region.”