Category Archive: Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Allegheny County purchase of liens opens doors to development
By Justin Vellucci
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, January 24, 2008Doug Van Haitsma looks at a three-story apartment building in Swissvale and sees the heart of a revitalized neighborhood.
Now that Allegheny County has bought back the lien — a legal claim for unpaid taxes — on the Monongahela Avenue property, Van Haitsma said his plan to convert it and 50 nearby parcels into a Mon Valley gateway is a step closer to reality.
“It’s a pocket within Swissvale that has really fallen on hard times,” said Van Haitsma, real estate director for the Mon Valley Initiative, a development group. “Having those liens in friendly hands … is a huge advantage.”
The county redevelopment authority agreed Wednesday to spend $1.625 million to buy back liens on 19,013 properties it sold a decade ago to GLS Capital Inc. The purchase includes vacant homes, commercial buildings and undeveloped lots in 129 municipalities — every town in the county except Pennsbury Village.
Officials hope the purchase spurs a development boom.
“We felt this was a pretty good deal,” said Dennis Davin, director of the county’s economic development office. “This gives us control of what happens at these properties.”The purchase also ends a 2007 lawsuit in which GLS accused the county of selling it “defective liens,” such as ones for sites the government planned to acquire through eminent domain, county solicitor Mike Wojcik said. The Virginia-based company sought more than $1.85 million in damages, court records show.
“It became cumbersome having to deal with them,” Wojcik said. “We can get GLS out of the picture now.”
GLS could not be reached for comment.
Attorney E.J. Strassburger, who helped file the lawsuit, forwarded questions to an attorney who didn’t return calls. Strassburger’s firm also represents the Tribune-Review.
The purchase represents just part of the 77,000 delinquent accounts GLS bought for nearly $50 million in the mid-1990s.
About one in every four of the purchased properties — roughly 4,500 — are in Pittsburgh. The city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority is interested in acquiring some liens in hopes of drawing developers to those properties, many of which are vacant, Davin said.
The head of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, which is restoring four Wilkinsburg homes once hit with tax liens, lauded the move.
“It sounds good to us because it (puts) the property back into the control of the county,” said foundation president Arthur Ziegler. “It would make renewal of them much easier.”
Patrick Shattuck, a ninth-generation Vermont native who moved to Wilkinsburg a year ago, agreed. He wants to turn vacant lots whose liens were bought by the county into parking and open space near his 108-year-old Edwardian home.
“The goal is to get the properties back into the hands of folks that are going to use them … and make these communities vibrant again,” Shattuck said.
The move to buy previously sold liens is not new. In 2006, Pittsburgh officials teamed with the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority and Pittsburgh Public Schools to buy liens on more than 11,000 properties for $6.5 million. The city sold about 14,000 liens from 1996 to 1999 for $64 million.
Justin Vellucci can be reached at jvellucci@tribweb.com or 412-320-7847
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Landmarks lends $885K for East Liberty project
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, January 24, 2008An East Liberty project has received an $885,000 boost from a nonprofit corporation formed last year by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation to spark community revitalization.
The loan, the first announced by the Landmarks Community Capital Corp. Urban Economic Loan Fund, is helping the East Liberty Development Corp. rehabilitate two historic homes on Rippey Street and revitalize the former YMCA building on Whitfield Street.
It has been combined with a $250,000 investment by the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority to help bring a blend of condominiums and retail space to the neighborhood.
“The loan follows our mission of being a first-in, first-out financing organization for holistic community revitalization,” said Howard B. Slaughter Jr., CEO of Landmarks Community Capital, on Wednesday.
The loan is the largest made by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation to a community organization, Slaughter said.
The East Liberty Development Corp. is using $135,000 to rehabilitate the two Queen Anne style houses at 5809-15 Rippey St. — described as “historically significant, but dilapidated” — and convert them into eight market-rate condos. The work is under way on the $1.4 million project.
In addition, Landmarks Community Capital is partnering with Meiz Development Co. of Denver to develop 10,000 square feet of street-level retail space and about 30 to 35 market-rate condominiums on the upper floors of the five-story YMCA building. The remaining $750,000 will be used to acquire the property.
“These will be the first market-rate condominiums in our downtown core and will be a key part of the redevelopment of East Liberty’s town square,” said Maelene Myers, executive director of East Liberty Development.
When Landmarks Community Capital started operations late last year, Slaughter said he hoped to raise $10 million to $15 million to invest in community development and revitalization projects in Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.
In its first year, Slaughter said he hopes to fund at least four or five projects ranging from $25,000 to $1 million. “We’re on track” to make that number of investments, he said.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
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Signs of past life
By Adam Brandolph
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, January 15, 2008Look up.
Faded advertisements flake off the sides of exposed brick buildings throughout the city. Remnants of a bygone era, these markers tell the story of our city’s rich history.
From companies like Otto Milk, formerly in the Strip District, to the German National Bank on Liberty Avenue, Downtown, and leisure activities like Penn Bowling Lanes, these reminders preserve a piece of how Pittsburghers used to live.
The ads often are pointed out to people on the public walking tours offered by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, executive director Louise Sturgess said. “These snapshots of history are wonderful,” Sturgess said.
But why do these signs remain after so many years? Even the Cathedral of Learning was cleaned last year.
“These signs remain because some building owners have no reason to remove them and are content to let them age along with the building,” Sturgess said. “The signs bring a layer of Pittsburgh history to life, and once you notice them, they are great conversation pieces, especially when you are with a Pittsburgher who remembers the business or product featured in the sign.”
While some signs are beaten and battered, the ones that grace the sides of Joe Mama’s, Uncle Sam’s and Fuel & Fuddle restaurants on Oakland Avenue in Oakland are comparatively new and shiny.
The sides of the stores feature three vintage-looking wall advertisements for Coca-Cola, despite none of them being more than 15 years-old, according to Michael Hanley, co-owner of all three stores.
Hanley said the themes of the restaurants are kind of old-school, so the handpainted ads make sense. “Coke adds to the timelessness,” he said, “and an older aesthetic helps convey our message.”
Adam Brandolph can be reached at abrandolph@tribweb.com or 412-320-7936
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A future built on Tarentum’s past
By Tom Yerace,
VALLEY NEWS DISPATCH
Thursday, January 10, 2008Holding on to some of the borough’s past to help it move into the future will be the subject of a public workshop on Jan. 16.The Key Issue Workshop concerning architecture and design in the business district, including the preservation of historic buildings, will be discussed.
It is the first of three workshops held in conjunction with the Allegheny Together program established by Allegheny County.
“This is for the Allegheny Together program, which is basically focused on revitalizing the downtown business district, but they want the whole community’s input on what it would like to see,” said Tarentum Manager Bill Rossey. “They just want some feedback here.”
The program — in which Tarentum is one of only four pilot communities — complements a broader revitalization effort that the borough has started.
Rossey said this workshop should be of particular interest to residents who believe in preserving the borough’s history through its buildings.
“We’ve lost too many valuable buildings already that can’t be replaced, and I wouldn’t want to lose any more,” Rossey said.
The workshop will be conducted by Town Center Associates, a consulting firm working through a contract with the county, and the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
“This program is focused purely on central business district revitalization,” said Mark Peluso, Town Center’s executive director. “Any planning activities that are going on related to the downtown come into play.”
Peluso said this workshop and two more that will follow, are designed to encourage input about how the community feels on key issues related to the downtown business district. He said the program is basically meant to provide a long-term commitment and a long-term strategy in reviving such districts.
“This is a very difficult issue for our communities that have experienced an economic downturn in downtown business districts,” Peluso said. “It’s really a pretty exciting opportunity for Tarentum to be connected to this.
“It’s a really rare opportunity. Most towns have to wrestle around for years to get the kind of support needed to get this kind of effort under way.”
Part of that support is input from the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
“We are putting a lot of time and effort into Tarentum, and the reason is simple: we think there is a solid foundation already in place,” said Ethan Raup, a foundation representative. “The historic fabric is strong.”
“The connection to the river and the riverfront park is strong. These are things that a lot of towns would love to have.”
He said Tarentum seems to have people in the business community and local government who are committed to making an investment in the revitalization effort.
Raup estimates that Tarentum has 20 to 25 buildings in the business district that display historic architecture that should be preserved. He said it is an important aspect in keeping the downtown districts economically viable now and into the future.
“The way these older downtowns compete is to offer quality services, small mom-and-pop stores that care about details and offer an overall experience such that you want to be there,” he said. “The quality of the architecture is as important as anything to that whole overall experience.”
“I think that differentiates from going to Pittsburgh Mills for example,” Raup added. “The architecture is part of the experience. The people living in the upper floors bring a vitality to the town that you won’t find in business parks.”
Rossey said he hopes that residents demonstrate their commitment to the county, by turning out in force to participate in the workshop.
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East Enders, city officials to talk about doomed trees
By Tim Puko
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, January 8, 2008The city is offering an olive branch to dozens of East End residents running a grassroots effort to preserve thousands of neighborhood trees.
Public works officials and the executive director of a Pittsburgh environmental group will attend a community meeting Thursday in Squirrel Hill to discuss a plan to trim the city’s tree population. A contractor took a tree inventory in 2005 and the city followed its recommendations by removing about 1,000 dead and defective trees last year, said Public Works Director Guy Costa.
Several Squirrel Hill residents have tried since November to press the city for more information and delay more removals. The city plans to remove 3,075 street-side trees, more than 500 of them in Squirrel Hill and other 14th Ward neighborhoods, this year.
“We’re concerned for the city, not just for our block,” said Francesca Savoia, a University of Pittsburgh professor and Monitor Street resident. “We think this massive elimination of trees may have a devastating impact on the quality of the air, especially if there is no clear plan, no money to replace them.”
Savoia and about two dozen neighbors started meeting and contacting city officials and local community groups after the city sent out postcards alerting them to upcoming tree removals. In addition to air quality, they’re concerned about a potential drop in property values, insufficient money to replace the trees and a lack of honesty from officials, Savoia said.
The 14th Ward has the most trees in the city — 5,993, according to a database created by Davey Resource Group, the Ohio contractor that did the 2005 study.
Savoia is hopeful the meeting at The Children’s Institute in Squirrel Hill will attract 70 people. Costa said he and Deputy Director Mike Gable will be there.
“I’m not against cutting down all the trees that are dead, that definitely represent a risk … but I would like to understand if all of these trees need to be felled,” Savoia said.
They do, according to the city, the environmental group Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest, and Davey Resource Group. The trees to be removed are dead, small, poorly formed, have damage that costs too much to fix or come from an “undesirable or inferior species” such as the tree-of-heaven or white mulberry, as determined by Davey.
The city has allocated $2.3 million for their removal. Some of the trees are among the city’s oldest and have branches vulnerable to breaking during storms, said Danielle Crumrine, executive director of Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest.
“There’s a risk that they will fall down and injure somebody,” Costa said. “Now we know they’re a liability for the city, so we need to be proactive and have them removed.”
City Councilman Doug Shields, who represents much of the 14th Ward, said residents likely don’t recall a meeting three years ago about the plan. He wants to get the word out again, and in a better way.
“All of a sudden, the tree-cutting crew shows up on the street and people get upset,” he said. “I think we’ve got to do a much better job telling the story of what it is we’re actually doing and remind people we had this study done, remind people there are issues of public safety involved in this as well.”
Crumrine’s group is helping with tree pruning, and is one of several groups helping to raise about $1.25 million for planting through 2011, Costa said. The city wants to plant 4,200 trees, which would more than replenish the population.
Tim Puko can be reached at tpuko@tribweb.com or 412-320-7975.
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Historic-church projects task foundation
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, December 29, 2007A growing number of historic churches in Allegheny County rotted by leaky roofs or even ransacked by thieves are seeking cash from the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation to jump-start expensive renovation efforts.
Since 1997, the foundation has given more than $600,000 to 94 congregations to fix cracked stained-glass windows and to replace crumbling brick. Thirty-five churches — the most ever in a single year — requested $290,000 worth of repairs for 2008.
Members of many aging congregations will be forced to look for help elsewhere next year — only about $87,000 will be available when the foundation’s Historic Religious Properties Committee decides how to distribute the money in mid-January, said Carole Malakoff, the program’s coordinator.
“This church is something worth preserving. It’s a yellow-brick building with a red door, and it had beautiful stained-glass windows, light fixtures and cherry wood inside,” said the Rev. Rosemary Seals, co-pastor of Triumph the Church and Kingdom of God in Christ on Lillie Avenue in Braddock.
In July, thieves stole 14 brass light fixtures, valued at $1,000 apiece, and three stained-glass windows from the 500-person sanctuary of the century-old church.
Water comes in through a shoddy roof, spurring mold growth.The condition has kept the 40 to 50 regular members from attending services there since July, said Seals, 74, of the Hill District.
Seals said she hopes the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation will give $10,000, the largest award available, to help her with repairs, which are expected to cost up to $51,000.
The Rev. John Paul Chaney, 54, of Bloomfield, has asked for the same amount of money to begin a much larger $1 million to $1.5 million restoration of the roof, windows and mold-encrusted walls of the former Fourth United Presbyterian Church in Bloomfield.
“It’s perfectly located,” Chaney said of the 112-year-old Richardsonian Romanesque stone church at the corner of South Pacific and Friendship avenues.
The church is convenient to Bloomfield, Friendship and Shadyside residents.
“The stone itself is absolutely gorgeous. I don’t know what it would cost for somebody to build a church like this today,” Chaney said.
The church hasn’t been used in almost two years, when the roof began to leak and no money was available to fix it, he said.
It was renamed Pacific Sanctuary Church in September, when Chaney’s nonprofit Earthen Vessels Outreach Program, an Episcopal Church affiliate, bought it.
Chaney said he hopes to make the church into a sanctuary for regular services and a meeting place, akin to The Union Project in Highland Park.
“Our prime goal now is to raise a lot of money so we can give to a lot of churches,” said Malakoff, adding that Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation requires churches to be at least 50 years old, located in Allegheny County and can match the grant awards.
“It’s not only that many churches need stained-glass windows, it’s the fact that the church in many communities is the center of activity, not only for religious purposes but also social services,” said Malakoff, the program’s director. “That needs to be preserved.”
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or 412-765-2312.
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Future of historical buildings precarious
By Craig Smith
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, December 24, 2007The stone house built two centuries ago by John Woods played host to the movers and shakers of its day but stands silent, its windows and doors boarded shut.
Composer Stephen Foster was a frequent visitor to the two-story home in Hazelwood, often entertaining the Woods family and their guests by playing guitar or piano.“They would be the local leaders of the day — judges, mayors, town leaders. The social register of that period,” said Deane Root, a University of Pittsburgh professor and director of the Center for American Music.
“They would read poetry or sing,” Root said. Foster loved to hear Woods’ daughters sing the songs of the day.
As Pittsburgh readies to celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2008, Root is thankful the vacant Woods house is standing because it is one of the oldest, tangible connections to the origins of the city.
“Why don’t we appreciate that? What’s wrong? Why do we always have to live life as if we were the first ones here?” Root said.The home, built in 1792, is among 589 sites in Southwestern Pennsylvania that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and one of three surviving 18th century structures in Pittsburgh.
Some of the buildings have been lovingly restored; others never will be. One building — the oldest structure designed by an architect in Pittsburgh — is for sale.
“Competition for restoration dollars is very keen,” said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, which did work to stabilize the Woods house in 2003 in conjunction with the Hazelwood Initiative.
Those looking to buy and renovate a historic structure won’t get any help from the state or federal government, said Bill Callahan, community preservation coordinator at the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission’s Bureau for Historic Preservation.
“There are no monies available for owner/occupied structures for preservation purposes,” he said. “I get phone calls every day about that. I wish I could give them a different answer.”
That leaves communities, local history groups or private citizens scrambling to preserve the buildings.
“We’ve got these gems in the community. It’s interesting what they could be,” said Jim Richter, director of the Hazelwood Initiative.
But the price of restoration is high.
The cost of a historical preservation of the Woods home has been estimated at $600,000. Just to make it liveable would cost $200,000, Richter said. A century-old Carnegie library down the street needs $900,000 in repairs.
Woods, the first surveyor of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, was a state senator in 1797 and elected to the 14th Congress in 1815. He died in 1817 at age 55.
The Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh in 2005 included the Woods home among its top 10 historical renovation opportunities.
“It’s a very important house. It needs a sponsor, a chief advocate,” said Dan Holland, who founded the association.
In Westmoreland County, Don and Cordelia Miller of Irwin bought Brush Hill, one of the first “mansion-style” homes constructed west of the Appalachians, 30 years ago and have been carefully restoring it since.
“You have to love it. I basically work on it full time,” Don Miller said about the home that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Brush Hill was built by Col. John Irwin, the town’s namesake, and was the largest of Irwin’s three plantations. Work on the Federal-style, two-story fieldstone home began in 1792, Miller said.
Materials used in its construction came from the area, he said.
“The stone was quarried here, the nails were handmade,” Miller said.
Living in a house this old isn’t for everyone, said Miller, a retired engineer. Homes of the era didn’t come with bathrooms so finding space to include such modern amenities must be included in the planning, he said.
There are other aspects peculiar to the times.
“Every window was a different size,” Cordelia Miller said.
The Millers have demolished a later addition to the house, renovated the kitchen and removed six inches of carpet, concrete and other flooring to reach the original wood floors. Future projects include replacing a slate roof that was added in the 1800s.
—Rich heritage
Southwestern Pennsylvania’s rich heritage is reflected in the number of sites registered as national historic places.Allegheny County — 207
Armstrong County — 18
Beaver County — 20
Butler County — 10
Fayette County — 72
Greene County — 46
Indiana County — 27
Somerset County — 32
Washington County — 104
Westmoreland County — 53
Source: The Pennsylvania History and Museum Commission
Testaments to the past
The region’s oldest buildings include:
• The Fort Pitt Blockhouse, built in 1764. It’s Pittsburgh’s earliest building and the oldest authenticated structure west of the Allegheny Mountains. The five-sided, two-story building constructed by Col. Henry Bouquet is in Point State Park and administered by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
• The Neill Log House was built about 1787 in Schenley Park. The Neills, who owned 262 acres in the northern section of the park, moved in 1795 to what is now Market Square. After their deaths, the log house and property were handed down to different people before being sold to Col. James O’Hara and his granddaughter Mary Schenley, who gave the property to the city in 1889. The Neill house received a City of Pittsburgh historic designation on Feb. 22, 1977.
• The Burke Building, 209 Fourth St., is the oldest building in Pittsburgh designed by an architect. The Greek revival-style, 3-story structure was built in 1836. The building was designed by William Chislett for Robert and Andrew Burke, attorneys active in land development in Pittsburgh. It has been the home of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy for 10 years. The sale of the building is under negotiation.
• Nemacolin Castle was built in Brownsville by stages between 1789 and 1900 by several generations of the Jacob Bowman family. The 22-room castle features a three-story octagonal tower and a squared third-story tower room. Jacob Bowman operated a trading post at the site and was named commissary to government troops during the Whiskey Rebellion. In 1795, he was commissioned justice of the peace and was named Brownsville’s first postmaster by President Washington. The castle, owned by the county and maintained by the Brownsville Historical Society, is a museum.
• The David Bradford House was built in Washington in 1788. Bradford was one of the leading lawyers and politicians of the area, serving as deputy attorney general for Washington County and as a delegate to the Whiskey Rebellion conferences in 1791 and 1792. The home is owned by the state and is a museum.
Craig Smith can be reached at csmith@tribweb.com or 412-380-5646.
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Smaller housing projects dot the city
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, December 23, 2007While large new housing developments draw much of the attention Downtown — among them Piatt Place, the Carlyle, Three PNC Plaza, 151 First Side and the Encore on 7th Street — there’s also a fair number of smaller projects adding to the mix.
An example is a plan by the Urban Evergreen Group to develop 10 to 12 units in two buildings: 333 Boulevard of Allies and 330 Third Ave.
“Pittsburgh is an ideal place for developments and investments,” said Jose Caro of Urban Evergreen, who moved here from New York about two months ago.
This is his first development in Pittsburgh, and Caro wants to do others.
Urban Evergreen paid $495,000 for the two buildings, with plans to develop retail on the first level, offices on the second and residential units on the floors above. Caro says it hasn’t been decided if the units will be offered for sale as condominiums or rented as apartments.
Together, the buildings have about 19,200 square feet. The structures were sold to Urban Evergreen by Human Services of Western Pennsylvania, with Tom Sullivan, a broker with Pennsylvania Commercial Real Estate who handled the deal.
Other projects adding to the residential mix Downtown include Philadelphia developer Solara Ventures’ condominium development at 941 Penn Ave. that is providing 18 units.
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation is moving forward with its plans to convert three vacant buildings on the edge of Market Square into Market at Fifth, a $2.5 million to $3 million complex that will feature seven upper-floor apartments, a ground-level restaurant and a rooftop garden.
Another smaller development is 5 Lofts, a project that, as the name says, provides five residential units. The complex is being developed in a six-story building at 806 Penn Ave. by Ninth and Liberty Partners LLC, a group that includes investors Sean Luther, Tom Jackson and Patty Burk.
The first floor will be for commercial use, while the floors above each contain one unit with about 1,850 square feet.
Burk is vice president of housing and economic development for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, an advocacy group.
One of partnership’s goals is to promote conversion of vacant upper floors of older commercial buildings into new housing.
Judging from recent evidence, the idea seems to be catching on.