Category Archive: Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Union Trust sale a done deal
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, February 7, 2008The sale of the historic Union Trust Building, Downtown, was completed Wednesday to principals of Mika Realty Group of Los Angeles.
Purchase price for the ornate, 11-story building that covers a full block of Grant Street, was $24.1 million, according to documents filed with the Allegheny County Recorder of Deeds office.
The purchase was expected to be completed last week. It was delayed because of the complicated nature of the transaction, said Jeffery Ackerman, commercial real estate broker with CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh, who negotiated the deal.
The new owners intend to restore the grandeur of the building that was designed in Flemish Gothic style by noted Pittsburgh architect F.J. Osterling and built in 1916 for industrialist Henry Clay Frick. The buyers were not available for comment yesterday.
The group, which includes Michael Kamen, founder of privately held Mika, and a business associate, Gerson Fox, also of Los Angeles, plans to continue using the structure as an office building and to attract a mix of upscale retail tenants to the first level.
The sale price was about $6 million below its $30.75 million market value, including land, as listed in public records. But local real estate experts said it was not a bargain-basement deal, noting that the building is nearly empty with the exception of a few retail tenants on the first floor.
“It’s a beautiful building with a lot of character,” said Jim Geiger, senior vice president with Grant Street Associates-Cushman & Wakefield, a Downtown commercial real estate firm. “It has a lot of things going for it, but it will be a challenge to fill the office space in light of today’s office market.”
Seller of the building at 501 Grant St. was Teal Rock 501 Grant Street LP, a unit of Cigna Corp. of Philadelphia.
Cigna has controlled the property since 2006, when it assumed ownership from long-time owner, Florida-based DeBartolo Property Group LLC, which defaulted on a mortgage held by Cigna.
The building ran into trouble after Mellon Financial Corp., its major tenant, relocated employees to other buildings Downtown in May 2006, and most other tenants followed suit due to uncertainties with their leases.
For the buyer, the purchase price, which works out to about $40.50 per square foot based on the 595,000-square-feet of leasable space in the building, is lower than it would cost to try to duplicate such a grand structure in the city, said Ned Doran, of GVA Oxford, the commercial leasing arm of Oxford Development Co.
Questions to be determined are how much they will spend to upgrade the building and their ability to attract tenants, Doran said.
Ackerman has said a number of large office users and retail prospects already have looked at the building.
The purchase was welcomed by Tom Michael, who owns upscale Larrimor’s clothing store in the building, the largest remaining retail tenant. Michael said he had talked to Michael Kamen of Mika recently.
“We are optimistic about moving forward and filling the building with quality tenants,” said Michael. “They have a large plan in the works for the building.”
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907
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Cinema fans preserve local old-school movie houses
By Craig Smith
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, February 7, 2008When an opportunity to buy the movie theater she used to frequent as a child came up six years ago, Meg Burkardt and two friends jumped at the chance.
Burkardt, Cyndi Yount and Marc Serrao, all of Penn Hills, bought the Oaks Theater in Oakmont with one goal in mind: preserving a dying breed.
“This is definitely a labor of love,” Burkardt said.
The Oaks has avoided the fate of most of the neighborhood movie theaters that once dotted this area’s towns.
“This is an area where you had a lot of Main Streets, and many of them had a theater. One of the main casualties on Main Street has been the theaters,” said Al Tannler, director of collections at the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
The Oaks, which opened in 1938 and seats 430, “rounds out the community,” said Bob Cooper, president of the Oakmont Chamber of Commerce.Interest in preserving old movie houses has grown over the past decade.
The Denis Theater in Mt. Lebanon, which has been closed for about 20 years, was bought by newly elected Commissioner D. Raja, who is studying how best to use the building.
The Strand in Zelienople will reopen later this year after a $1 million face-lift, said its owner, Ron Carter, 40, of Cranberry, who plans to eventually convert the theater into a performing arts center. The theater opened in 1914 as a silent movie house and vaudeville theater.
The Web site Cinema Treasures was launched eight years ago to help preserve movie theaters. The site links “movie theater owners and enthusiasts in an effort to help save the last remaining movie palaces across the country.”
In the early days, movie theaters would open at 10 a.m. and close at 11 p.m., said Michael Aronson, assistant professor of English at the University of Oregon and author of a soon-to-be-released book on the early days of movies in Pittsburgh.
“Some people would go after work. It was an alternative to going to the saloon,” he said.
The social aspect of going to the movies made them stand out, Aronson said. “It wasn’t just what was on the screen.”
Today, neighborhood movie theaters are luring customers with lower ticket and concession stand prices.
The January reopening of the Hollywood Theater in Dormont has added an extra draw to the business district, attracting patrons to nearby Potomac Avenue and its restaurants, merchants said.
The Bradley Center, an agency serving children with mental, emotional and developmental disabilities, reopened the 300-seat Hollywood for second-run films.
Dan Bahur, 50, of Pleasant Hills got his start in the “movie biz” as an usher when he was 16.
“My friends were working at theaters and I got a job. I got sucked in and never left,” said Bahur, manager of the Hollywood, where he worked 20 years ago. He came back when he heard the theater was reopening.
The theater, which opened in 1933, has undergone extensive renovations to its lobby and projection booth. The theater is Dolby-digital capable and has new seats.
“We have a really good theater here. We have an awesome place to see a movie in,” Bahur said. ” ‘Ben Hur’ on a 19-inch screen is a lot different than on a 30-foot-screen.”
The Hollywood has been a hit with neighbors.
“It’s so nice to have a theater in your neighborhood. A lot of people walk to it,” said John Maggio of Dormont. With its single screen, “you don’t hear other movies in the other rooms.”
The Ambridge Family Theater got its start in the late 1960s in a former sewing machine store.
“This is a great little business. It’s not going to make us wealthy by any means,” said Glenda Cockrum, who bought the theater with her husband, Rick, about 10 years ago.
The theater is involved in the community, and often hosts Scout troops or high school groups. Cockrum said she was bitten by the “movie bug” while working as an assistant manager for Carmike Cinema.
Her own theater is a little smaller. It seats 134.
“We used to have four movie theaters in Ambridge. This is the only one left,” said Mayor Carl “Buzzy” Notarianni, who saw “Serpico” and “The Ten Commandments” at the theater.
It’s a family operation. Cockrum handles booking, advertising, painting and the box office. Her husband is the projectionist, plumber, electrician, computer programmer and bookkeeper.
For the Cockrums, who have four children, simple economics dictated their plans to buy the theater.
“It was cheaper to buy the theater than to take the kids to the movies each week,” Glenda Cockrum said with a laugh.
Craig Smith can be reached at csmith@tribweb.com or 412-380-5646.
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Funding secures region’s black history
By David M. Brown
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, February 6, 2008A 1950s print of Herron Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Hill District is among of 750,000 images from the New Pittsburgh Courier archives.
They are snapshots from Pittsburgh’s past.
Black troops return home from World War II and march down Wylie Avenue in the Hill District. Downtown protesters call for an end to segregation at city pools. A baseball player signs with the Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues.
The photographs are part of a Pittsburgh Courier archive of more than 750,000 images being preserved and protected in a project to make them available for research, education and public display. The nonprofit group Pittsburgh Courier Images on Tuesday received a $150,000 federal grant to get the effort started.
“The upshot of this is about sharing this treasure,” said Rod Doss, editor and publisher of the New Pittsburgh Courier. “This is not just a Pittsburgh treasure; it’s a U.S. treasure.”
Opening the archive creates a rare portal into nearly a century of black history in this region and the nation, Doss said. The newspaper is “honored to be the keeper of what is an incredible and extensive record” of black history throughout the 20th century, he said.
At its peak, the Courier was the most widely circulated black newspaper in the United States. It published 21 regional editions across the country and a national edition.
The newspaper will mark its 100th anniversary in 2010.
The archive includes shots by about 250 photographers of black leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Sen. Adam Clayton Powell; highlights of the civil rights movement such as the “Little Rock Nine” integrating classes at Central High in Little Rock, Ark.; jazz, blues and classical musicians such as Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Billy Eckstine; famous sports figures; and thousands of scenes from everyday life in black communities.
“This money is a good foundation for us to start to assess and organize the collection,” said Laura S. Horner of Edgewood, project director for Pittsburgh Courier Images.
More than 60,000 of the photos were shot by legendary photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris for the Courier between 1936 and 1975.
In celebration of Black History Month, some of Harris’ work was on display last night at the City-County Building, Downtown. Born in Pittsburgh in 1908, Harris died in 1998.
The grant was obtained through the U.S. Department of Interior’s Save America’s Treasures Program.
The archive provides “valuable documentation of the history of the momentous struggle for racial equality in our country,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, who helped to secure the grant.
David M. Brown can be reached at dbrown@tribweb.com or 412-380-5614.
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Sale of Union Trust Building completed for $24.1 million
By Sam Spatter
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, February 6, 2008The historic Union Trust Building in Downtown Pittsburgh has been sold.
Mika Realty Group of Los Angeles completed the previously announced purchase of the 11-story building from Teal Rock 501 Grant Street LP, a unit of Cigna Corp. of Philadelphia, on Tuesday for $24.1 million.The purchase, through Mika’s Five 501 Grant St. Partners LLC, was recorded today at the Allegheny County Recorder of Deeds offfice.
The new owner will continue to use the building for offices, plus first floor retail, said Jeffrey Ackerman, commercial real estate broker with CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh, who negotiated the sale.
Efforts will be made by Ackerman and Jeremy Kronman, also of CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh, to locate tenants for the 800,000-square-foot building which is nearly empty, except for several retail tenants on the ground level.
Previously known as Two Mellon Bank Center, the building was designed in Flemish Gothic style by noted Pittsburgh architect F. J. Osterling and built in 1916 for industrialist Henry Clay Frick.
Sam Spatter can be reached at sspatter@tribweb.com or 412-320-7843.
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Riverfront Park closed to proposals for statues
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, February 5, 2008A moratorium on new public art and memorials in North Shore Riverfront Park leaves two 93-year-old bronze sculptures without a home.
The city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority voted Monday to stop considering proposals for sculptures and memorials to be placed in the park, which runs along the Ohio and Allegheny rivers from the Carnegie Science Center to the Ninth Street Bridge.
SEA Executive Director Mary Conturo said the master plan for the park calls for some of the land to remain as untouched “green space.”
Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, wants to place in the park two sculptures that once sat on the entrances to the former Manchester Bridge.
“We would still like to see the portal sculptures from the Manchester Bridge located somewhere near there, as has been discussed,” Ziegler said. “I think it’s still something that should be considered.”
The Manchester Bridge was removed in 1970. The 13-by-37-foot sculptures that sat on it commemorated steel and coal workers, explorers and American Indians.
Three memorials and a public art sculpture sit on the mile-long North Shore Riverfront Park. The memorials honor law enforcement officials, Vietnam War veterans and Korean War veterans. The sculpture near the Carnegie Science Center is “Langley Observatory Clock” by artist R.M. Fischer.
Memorials to World War II veterans and the late children’s television host Fred Rogers are in the works. Once finished there will be six sculptures in the park.
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or 412-765-2312.
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Save-a-Lot may put a food store in the Hill District
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, January 29, 2008A St. Louis-based grocery store chain that specializes in serving inner-city neighborhoods could set up shop in the Hill District, according to the Landmarks Community Capital Corp.
“This is a grocer who has a great connection to this market, is interested in developing in urban markets and is open to minority ownership,” said Howard B. Slaughter Jr., CEO of Landmarks Capital, part of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
Slaughter declined to identify the company, but he would not deny speculation that it is discount grocer Save-a-Lot, which is based in St. Louis and has five stores in the Pittsburgh area, including Duquesne, Wilkinsburg and Lawrenceville.
“It has to be Save-a-Lot. It matches up in terms of the number of stores, and it likes those demographics,” said industry consultant Burt Flickinger III, managing director of Strategic Resource Group in New York.
Slaughter said in a news release that the grocer has 1,200 stores in 39 states and is the nation’s fifth-largest chain. Those figures mirror statistics about Save-a-Lot on the company’s Web site. A spokesperson did not return a call seeking comment.
Slaughter said he and the grocer will discuss a market analysis and site inspection of a possible Centre Avenue location for the store at an 8:30 a.m. news conference today at Station Square.
The grocery store operator could be eligible for up to $2 million in loans from The Reinvestment Fund of Philadelphia to cover start-up costs such as buying land and recruiting employees, Slaughter said.
Separately, the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority and the Pittsburgh Penguins have offered up to $2 million in start-up financing to a company willing to open what would become the Hill District’s lone grocery store.
The commitment is in response to neighbors who are demanding an agreement that includes provisions for a grocery store from the city, Penguins and Allegheny County before the $290 million Uptown arena is built for the Penguins.
“It’s always positive to have operators that are interested,” said Carl Redwood Jr., chairman of the One Hill Coalition, a group seeking a community benefits agreement. “We just need to make sure that the community needs are met. There are some people in the community that wouldn’t call this their ideal store.”
Redwood said some members of One Hill might not like a discount chain that lacks the amenities of some supermarket chains such as a pharmacy.
In 2006, some Hill District residents rejected efforts by Aldi, a German-owned discount chain, to open a store on Centre Avenue because they believed it would ruin chances to attract a full-service grocery store.
The neighborhood hasn’t had a full-service store since Shop ‘n Save closed its AUBA Plaza store on Centre Avenue in the early 1980s.
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or 412-765-2312.
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Union Trust sale nears completion
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, January 26, 2008An investment group led by executives of the Mika Realty Group in Los Angeles is expected to complete the purchase of the historic Union Trust Building next week.
“Things have gone smoothly, and there have been no snags,” said Jeffrey Ackerman, commercial real estate broker with CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh, who has been marketing the 11-story, 800,000-square-foot structure on Grant Street since last year.The Tribune-Review reported in November that the building was under purchase agreement to the group that includes Michael Kamen, founder of privately held Mika, and a business associate, Gerson Fox, also of Los Angeles.
A purchase price has not been disclosed, but the building is assessed at $30.75 million, according to Allegheny County records.
Ackerman is working on behalf of the building’s owner, Teal Rock 501 Grant Street LP, a partnership owned by Philadelphia-based Cigna Corp.
“We look at the Union Trust Building as a classic building that can’t be duplicated,” Rick Barreca, CEO of Mika Realty, told the Tribune-Review in November. Barreca also one of the investors in the deal.A list of developers carried by a California business publication showed Mika as the 13th-largest developer in the Los Angeles area, with some 5.9 million square feet in commercial real estate developed.
“The buyers have hired an architectural firm to help design improvements for the building,” Ackerman said. The group has said it wants to upgrade the building without disturbing its historic character.
The building, which has been known as Two Mellon Bank Center, is widely regarded as one of the city’s most architecturally significant landmark buildings. It was designed in Flemish Gothic style by noted Pittsburgh architect F.J. Osterling and built in 1916 for industrialist Henry Clay Frick.
It has been nearly empty since Mellon Financial Corp. — now Bank of New York Mellon Corp. — moved its personnel out of the structure in May 2006.
A small number of mostly retail tenants remain on the first level, the largest being Lorrimer’s clothing store.
CB Richard Ellis will handle management of the building once the sale completed, Ackerman said.
Two of its brokers, Hugh “Herky” Pollock and Jeremy Kronman, already have been working on behalf of the buyers to pitch space there to potential tenants for first floor retail and the upper floor office space, Ackerman said.
“A number of large office users have looked at the building, and they also have some very exciting prospects for the retail,” said Ackerman, without disclosing names of companies involved.
“The office market really is very active right now,” said Kronman. He’s shown the building to numerous prospective tenants, in fact, “enough to fill up four times the available space,” he said.
“We have people looking for 50,000- to 200,000-square-foot blocks, and we haven’t really started our leasing campaign,” he said.
The national credit crunch that has had a major impact on the U.S. residential market hasn’t caused any problems with the Union Trust building deal, Ackerman said.
“The buyer has secured lender financing,” he said.
Securing financing was said to be a problem with a previous potential buyer, a New York investment group that included Houlihan-Parnes/iCap Realty Advisors of White Plains and J.J. Operating Corp. of New York City.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
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Bringing East Liberty back to life
By David M. Brown
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, January 25, 2008With its ornate, arched entryway on Whitfield Street, the century-old former YMCA building in East Liberty evokes memories of when the neighborhood was a bustling retail district, second only to Downtown.
Older residents recall streets lined with restaurants, jewelry and furniture stores, movie theaters, supermarkets and a department store. That was before the neighborhood deteriorated as urban redevelopment backfired, analysts say, and use of the YMCA dwindled.
But on Thursday, officials heralded the five-story brick building as the focal point for revitalizing the business district in a neighborhood that has shown signs of rebirth.
The building will be converted into 35 condominiums on the upper floors and retail space on the first floor. A nonprofit corporation formed last year by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation gave the project an $885,000 loan.
“This is the first project really in the core of East Liberty that’s really going to bring life back to the neighborhood,” Maelene Myers, executive director of the East Liberty Development Corp., said at a news conference. “I cannot say enough about partnership.”
The below-market-rate loan — the first announced by the new Landmarks Community Capital Corp.’s Urban Economic Loan Fund — also is helping the development corporation rehabilitate two historically significant homes on Rippey Street. The loan has been combined with a $250,000 grant from the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority.“What’s happening with the ‘Y’ is a major piece of restoring old, viable East Liberty,” said Arthur P. Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
State Rep. Joe Preston, 60, of East Liberty noted that he and other public officials attending yesterday’s news conference played basketball at the YMCA when they were growing up. The YMCA was closed more than a decade ago, and the building is now vacant.
“It’s a good thing to see it coming back as something positive,” Preston said.
Neighborhood advocates say the first seed for the neighborhood’s rebirth was planted when the Home Depot opened on Penn Circle North in 2000.
Two years later, organic grocer Whole Foods made a successful debut on the other side of the circle at Centre Avenue. The Mosites Co.’s EastSide project brought in a Walgreens Drug Store, Starbucks coffee shop, and other retail outlets.
“We’ve seen a lot of success on the outskirts, but now we are in downtown East Liberty,” said Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.
Mark Meiser of Meiz Development Co., the Denver-based developer on the $7 million conversion of the YMCA building, said East Liberty is prime for developments such as the condominiums.
“The building is fabulous. I love the architecture. I love the setting,” Meiser said. “First and foremost, the timing is right for East Liberty. Whole Foods is nationally known as one of the best in the country. If they are here and prospering, that tells me the foundation is here.”
City Councilman Ricky Burgess, whose district includes East Liberty, said the project is important to adjacent neighborhoods.
“East Liberty has to be a magnet,” Burgess said. “It has to be bustling with development, with homeowners and shops. We hope to take this development further up and redevelop Brushton, Point Breeze, Homewood, the whole 9th Council District.”
David M. Brown can be reached at dbrown@tribweb.com or 412-380-5614.