Category Archive: Pittsburgh Tribune Review
-
Urban planning expert urges leaders to make local neighborhoods walkable
By Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, May 19, 2007An urban planning expert urged local leaders Friday to adopt “smart growth” principles as they map out a strategy for the region’s future.
“There are a lot regions in this country and around the world where people have started to realize that things such as transportation and housing need to be planned in a very deliberate way,” said David Chen, founder and executive director of Smart Growth America, based in Washington.Chen was the keynote speaker at the seventh annual Southwestern Pennsylvania Smart Growth Conference at the Omni William Penn Hotel, Downtown. About 250 business and community leaders attended.
Smart growth involves comprehensive regional planning that, among other things, takes into account environmental issues, global competitiveness, transportation, housing, changing demographics and social equity.
Given the Pittsburgh region’s aging population, Chen said community planners should make neighborhoods more walkable and less reliant on cars by improving the quality and availability of public transportation.
He suggested using smart growth principles when redeveloping older towns and neighborhoods, and when planning new communities.
“While there is still a demand for conventional developments, the market is shifting and we are beginning to see a greater desire for urban living,” Chen said.
With so many townships and boroughs, the region’s fractionalized bureaucracy creates a “significant challenge” when trying to plan on a regional scale, but it has been done in other parts of the country without annexation, Chen said.
“New Jersey has successfully linked different transit systems to create a more integrated system,” said Chen, who noted that some communities in upstate New York have begun to share municipal services.
During a question-and-answer session, David Ross, the planning director for Castle Shannon, drew attention to a lack of governmental cooperation by asking for a show of hands from representatives of local government.
Only four people responded.
“We live in a very parochial area,” he said. “Many of the issues we are discussing today have to be dealt with from the bottom up rather than the top down. That means getting local officials on board with the idea of working together. That will take time.”
Chen announced yesterday that Smart Growth America decided to hold its first national Reclaiming Vacant Properties conference Downtown in September.
Tony LaRussa can be reached at tlarussa@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7987.
-
Pittsburgh residents’ labor leads to neighborhood revival
By Mike Cronin
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, May 19, 2007Some of Garfield’s “steps to nowhere” are finally headed somewhere.
The Bloomfield-Garfield Corp. has spent about 25 years buying abandoned buildings and empty lots whose concrete stoops still blight the neighborhood. In some spots, green grass and new homes stand in their places.“God bless these folks,” Aggie Brose, deputy director of the nonprofit, said of the people who bought the homes. Even though some still have blighted structures as neighbors, the new homeowners are “visionaries,” she said.
It takes patience to transform depressed neighborhoods like Garfield into vibrant centers, said those who have pushed for development there and in East Liberty, the South Side Slopes and Tarentum.
Coming up with just a plan might take a year, and executing it can take decades. Leaders of development corporations like Brose’s said residents, business owners and government officials must cooperate to bring a neighborhood back to life.
“With community planning, the way you start is always the same: You find out what’s important to the residents of the neighborhood,” said Maelene Myers, executive director of East Liberty Development Inc.In South Side Slopes, residents and groups have tried to promote affordable housing, Downtown views and cleanup efforts to attract new neighbors. A fire helped, too.
Bev Boggio, 41, cofounder of the South Side Slopes Neighborhood Association, credits a 1998 fire that gutted three houses on Holt Street for mobilizing her neighbors.
“We put signs on poles saying we needed to save our housing stock from fires,” Boggio said. “So many people showed up, we decided we should have our own neighborhood group.”
Judy Dyda, South Side Local Development Co.’s manager of community planning, said older residents learned they needed to embrace young professionals, like Boggio, who started moving in.
“We’ve worked together to do neighborhood cleanups and lighting for pedestrian bridges,” said Joan Burke, 62, a lifelong resident of the slopes.
Brose and Richard Swartz, executive director of the Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., have focused on bringing new residents and business owners to Garfield. They’ve worked with the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority to buy and renovate properties. A 50-house project is underway, and all but one of the 23 built so far have been sold. The homes sell for $120,000 to $131,000.
“We’re deliberately pushing the market up and selling at two to two-and-a-half times what a house here typically sells for,” Swartz said. “It’s a signal to the private market that this area is not going to stay depressed forever.”
A walk along Penn Avenue reveals the resurgence. Many artists own the shops where they sell their work and others’. That’s unusual, said Laura Jean McLaughlin, 41, owner of The Clay Penn.
Neighborhood groups like the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative help artists get grants and loans so they can take ownership of the area’s improvement, McLaughlin said.
“I purchased this building for $15,000,” said McLaughlin, who’s received a grant and loan from local groups to refurbish her property and create two apartments upstairs. “I’m gaining equity. I’ll be able to sell and make a profit.”
Affordable housing is one way Tarentum residents hope to draw people to their borough, where houses cost between $40,000 and $60,000.
“We’d like to have a Shadyside kind of thing,” said George Gatto, owner of a motorcycle shop, a diner and other businesses. “People like to shop in towns.”
Borough Manager Bill Rossey held a meeting last year to gather ideas from the community. Hundreds attended, and since then Rossey has applied for nearly $50,000 in state grants to plan the development of Tarentum’s riverfront, railroad areas and West Seventh Avenue business district.
“People are waiting to get on board with what Tarentum’s going to do,” said Debbie Shiring, 39, who has lived most of her life in the borough and is handling the public relations campaign for the revitalization. “There’s definitely a groundswell of energy and support.”
Mike Cronin can be reached at mcronin@tribweb.com or 412-320-7884.
-
$1.5M will help arts center transformation in McKees Rocks
By Sandra Fischione Donovan
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, May 18, 2007A $1.5 million grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation will help a McKees Rocks community group continue its transformation of an old storefront into the Sto-Rox Cultural Arts Center.
“Oh, it’s going to be grand,” said the Rev. Regis Ryan, executive director of Focus on Renewal, a nonprofit that operates a health center, credit union, high-rise apartment building and social services programs.The agency is remodeling the former Desks Inc. on Chartiers Avenue. After buying the furniture store two years ago, the group began remodeling with $500,000 from Allegheny County and another $500,000 from the Grable Foundation, Ryan said.
The $3.4 million center will include a 130-seat auditorium, art studios and classrooms. The nonprofit expects to finish work by the end of the year.
Focus on Renewal currently runs its cultural arts programs — music, theater, dance, visual arts and literature — in Sto-Rox schools. Once it’s complete, the arts center will host those classes and performances. Movable seating will enable the auditorium to be used for receptions, Ryan said.
Officials said $1 million of the Richard King Mellon grant is unrestricted; the remainder will come as a match if the McKees Rocks group raises another $500,000.“We are in the process of raising the rest,” Ryan said.
The group is soliciting donations from former McKees Rocks residents involved in the arts, through its Where Are They Now Committee.
A spokeswoman for the Richard King Mellon Foundation said any comment on the grant would have to come from the foundation’s director, Scott Izzo, who was on vacation and unavailable.
Ryan predicts the center would be used throughout the day. Programs for young people would be scheduled after school and on weekends. But he hopes to convince school officials to allow students to take some classes there. The center would be open during the day for adult programs and classes.
“It will be a wonderful asset for the whole region,” Ryan said.
-
Fort Duquesne drain discovered
By Jodi Weigand
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, May 16, 2007Tom Kutys knew right away that he found something special.
Kutys, 24, whose archeology firm is monitoring the $35 million renovation of Point State Park, was working in a trench two weeks ago when he found three capstones. He thought it might be a wall, but the hollow, brick lining told him otherwise.“It was just three rocks with mortar between, but when we started further investigating it, things started popping up that tipped us off,” Kutys, a field technician with A.D. Marble & Company, said Tuesday.
Archaeologists believe Kutys unearthed a 200-year-old Fort Duquesne drain that drew water away from a storehouse or munitions storage area.
“This is, to my knowledge, the first physical evidence of Fort Duquesne that’s ever been identified since the late 18th or early 19th century, when remains were still slightly visible,” said Brooke Blades, a archeologist with A.D. Marble, based in Montgomery County.
It is the third major archaeological discovery at the park since the start of the renovation project, which will convert the area into a festival and concert venue. Archeologists previously found decades-old human bones and part of Fort Pitt’s interior wall.The drain was found 2 1/2 to 4 feet below ground on the southeast side of the park’s Great Lawn area, about 40 feet south of the Fort Duquesne tracery — the brick outline of the original fort.
“The construction (of the drain) suggests it was made in the late 18th or early 19th century, and the distance from the remains of the fort clearly argue for association with Fort Duquesne,” Blades said.
Fort Duquesne, built by the French in 1754, was destroyed four years later as the British advanced during the French and Indian War. The British then built Fort Pitt in its place.
Few remnants of Fort Duquesne have been found.
Blades said archaeologists plan to follow the drain north and look for other evidence of Fort Duquesne, which might be near the surface.
“The fact that we’re finding things argues that there may be extensive evidence of Fort Duquesne intact,” Blades said. “Probably the lowest part, because buildings would have been eradicated.”
The archeological work will not delay renovations. The drain will be preserved and buried for a future excavation project, said Laura Fisher, senior vice president of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, a sponsor of the renovation project.
“It will be covered up in the short term,” she said, “but what we hope to do is come back and have an active program for archeology in the park.”
-
Abolished commerce taxes spurrs growth in Avalon
By Richard Byrne Reilly
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, May 12, 2007Attorney Steven Shreve has no regrets about moving his busy Downtown law firm to Avalon last year.
The sleepy town of 5,000, less than six miles from Pittsburgh, has well-maintained homes, low crime and stable property prices, Shreve said. He purchased a former movie theater with high ceilings and brick walls on California avenue and moved in with his staff in November. He closed another office he had in adjacent Bellevue.
“There’s a congenial environment for business and for living here. You can walk on the main drag. Avalon is strategically located. I can access (Route) 65 and (Interstate) 279 easily, and I have two ways of travelling north and south,” Shreve said.
He isn’t the only one. Doctors, attorneys, accountants and other small-business owners are increasingly setting up shop in vacant storefronts and houses, said borough manager Harry Dilmore.
They are doing so, merchants say, because they don’t have to pay business privilege and mercantile taxes. The borough abolished the taxes in August. The roughly $30,000 a year it lost in revenue, Avalon more than makes up in new commerce and vitality.
Two attorneys opened offices last year, Dilmore said, in addition to accountants, a private detective agency, and a computer communications specialist. Eight doctors and other medical professionals have a presence on California Avenue, Avalon’s main thoroughfare.
Dilmore, borough manager for five years, sees a future predicated on a successful small business community.
“We’re altering zoning ordinances that will spur small business development,” said Dilmore, who favors golf shirts tucked into Dockers-style khakis.
Dilmore will propose a measure May 16 to prohibit buyers from converting large, single-family residences into multi-apartment units. The borough wants to attract families and businesses that will keep the homes intact and in good condition. Financial grants the borough obtained through Allegheny County would help qualifying small-business owners clean up property and install facades, Dilmore said.
Like much of the county, Avalon deals with declining population, says Constance Rankin, head of the North Suburban Chamber of Commerce. Rankin is an attorney and publisher of a small newspaper in Bellevue. The borough’s population dropped from 5,294 in 2000 to 4,962 in 2005, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“Avalon is doing something about it. There’s an emphasis on code enforcement. A quality of life committee, residential cleanups, Dumpster days. They have brought in outside experts. They’ve done useful things to improve the quality of life,” Rankin said.
Avalon attorney and borough Councilman Patrick Narcisi, whose office is a few doors down from Shreve’s, founded the Avalon Quality of Life Committee last year. Tax abatement and tax breaks for home buyers and tweaks to zoning ordinances to prevent slum or absentee landlords to rent apartments to irresponsible tenants are crucial, he said.
“We’re really kind of on the edge. The borough can go down rapidly. You need to work hard to keep it from doing so,” Narcisi said.
His committee brings together the police, the building inspector, fire chief and representatives from local churches. He stresses the importance of property owners maintaining homes, and it recommends to the borough deteriorating properties whose owners should be fined. He wants to launch a database using a color-coded system that would rate properties from good to poor.
“We’re hoping this will have a positive impact on the borough,” he said.
Vicky Tedesco will open her children’s clothing boutique on California Avenue on Monday. Affordable rent, location and steady traffic flow sold her on Avalon. She is located across the street from the borough’s $2.2 million municipal building, which opened last year.
Press Craft Printers Inc. has been in the same location on California Avenue for 47 years. Owner Bill Miller inherited the commercial printing business from his father. He welcomes the newcomers — and efforts Dilmore and others are making to accommodate them.
Dilmore “is addressing different problems. He is trying to take the borough to the next level,” Miller said.
Richard Byrne Reilly can be reached at rreilly@tribweb.com or (412) 380-5625.
-
New homes in Hill open doors to first-time buyers
By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, May 11, 2007Goldie Harris likes the look of the tidy, new, two-story houses next to her home in the heart of the Hill District, but she’s not sure who can afford to live in them.
“The most important thing is to make them affordable,” said Harris, 76, who has lived on Roberts Street for 11 years.Her new neighbors are the first eight of 29 planned houses — called Bedford Hill Homes — by the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh. The homes are the newest part of an existing 400-unit, affordable housing development.
Harris said the Bedford Hill Homes’ $150,000 price tags could be steep for some first-time home buyers.
Tom Cummings, housing director for the Urban Redevelopment Authority, disagrees.
He said zero-percent federal and URA deferred loans are available to cut drastically the cost of new mortgages — as long as the new owners are first-time home buyers and meet income requirements.The brick-faced homes have individual entrances and small front yards — a type of design that’s slowly replacing the Housing Authority’s much-maligned public housing high-rises, authority officials have said.
The homes were developed by Hanson Design Group, Steve Catranel Construction Co. and others.
“We believe these are more than just buildings behind us. This is an investment in the community,” said A. Fulton Meachem Jr., the housing authority’s executive director. “We are making home ownership available to all residents in the city of Pittsburgh.”
Buyers have applied to purchase five of the eight first-phase homes, Cummings said.
They’re expected to close those sales by the end of the month, when the second round of eight homes will begin going up, he said.
None of the potential buyers attended a dedication ceremony Thursday in the Hill. Attending the event were Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Council President Doug Shields.
Howard Cooper, 72, another Roberts Street resident, said a rowdy dive bar — and others like it — used to occupy the land where the model Bedford Hill home sat open yesterday for tours.
“There’s been a whole lot of changes here,” said Cooper, who stopped by the ceremony to snap photos with his camera. “There used to be a lot of bars around here, and they caused a lot of problems” with drugs and crime.
“I’m hoping some kids will move in now,” Cooper said. “It’s a lot better here.”
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.
-
Garfield project may get go-ahead
By Bonnie Pfister
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, May 9, 2007The Urban Redevelopment Authority is poised to approve nearly $1.2 million in loans and more than $700,000 in grants to help develop an 18-unit residential and commercial building in Garfield.
The URA board is expected to vote Thursday on proposals to help finance the $6.17 million “Glass Lofts” development on Penn Ave and North Fairmount Street. The developer, Friendship Development Associates, has worked with architect Arthur Lubetz Associates and Sota Construction.The project would include 3,200 square feet of ground-floor commercial space intended for a restaurant, 1,100 square feet of office space, and four artists’ studios.
The URA also is scheduled to discuss redevelopment efforts at Wood Street Commons, a 16-story building at the corner of Third Avenue and Wood Street, Downtown, which offers affordable housing to the working poor and those at risk of homelessness.
Operated since 1987 as a partnership of the nonprofit Community Human Services Corp., developer Mistick PBT and local government agencies, it houses 259 apartments and six floors of commercial space. But Mistick PBT is liquidating its assets and must be removed from the ownership structure, according to URA documents.
The Allegheny County Office of Community Services will vacate its office space there in June 2008, resulting in a loss nearly $1 million in annual income for the building owners.The URA board will vote on a reimbursement agreement with the county to help pay Baker Young Corp. to reassess the building’s value and potential redevelopment of the commercial floors. The county would reimburse the URA half the cost to conduct the study, up to $25,000.
Officials from the URA and Friendship Development Associates did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Bonnie Pfister can be reached at bpfister@tribweb.com or 412-320-7886.
-
Cork Factory apartments get bubbly reviews
By Ron DaParma and Sam Spatter
For the Tribune-Review
Saturday, May 5, 2007Debbie Dougherty gushes superlatives when she describes the two-bedroom loft apartment that she and her husband, Bill, share at the new Cork Factory apartments in the Strip District.
“It’s just so wonderful. We’re enjoying every minute of it,” said Dougherty, whose seventh-floor corner unit offers views of both the Allegheny River and Downtown. “We have brick walls and 17-foot ceilings, and it’s incredible,” she said.
Because her husband is retired and their four children have grown and moved, Dougherty said the couple decided to downsize from their large family home in Murrysville. They moved in March to the 297-unit luxury Cork Factory complex, which celebrated its grand opening Friday.
With 135 apartments — about 45 percent of the units — already scooped up by renters, the $70 million project is well ahead of its leasing goals, said Daniel McCaffery, of Daniel McCaffery Interests of Chicago.
“We’re very pleased,” said McCaffery, who developed the site in partnership with Charles Hammell III and Robert Beynon, the local businessmen who own the property on Railroad Street between 23rd and 24th Streets.
“The important thing is we are making our rental rate and renting at a pace that’s faster than we predicted,” McCaffery said.The developers expect the percentage figure will be close to 70 percent as early as the fall.
In addition to the apartments, interest also is high in the 48,000-square-feet of retail space available, he said. Leasing deals may be pending with two upscale restaurants and a local grocery store, he said.
The three-building complex originally was built as the home of the Armstrong Cork Co. in 1901. The estimated development is privately financed although federal tax credits for historic sites cover some of the costs.
So far, tenants are a mixture of young single professionals, many newcomers to the Pittsburgh, a smattering of suburbanites and elderly residents, said Debbie Roberts, Cork Factory general manager.
“We’ve met so many nice people,” Debbie Dougherty said. “We’ve even formed a dinner-out once-a-month group with people here, and it’s all ages — the young, the baby boomers and so forth.”
Now that leasing of apartments is well under way, the development team can move ahead on their plans to develop a private marina on the Allegheny River for the exclusive use of Cork Factory residents.
Also ahead is a river walk that will allow tenants to walk the grounds of the complex.
Other features include the historic, fully restored smokestack and engine room.
Under its current configuration, the complex offers 206 one-bedroom units; 73 two-bedroom, two-bath units; and 18 three-bedroom, two-bath units.
Studio apartments rent from $1,200; other one-bedroom units from $1,009 to $2,480; two-bedrooms from $1,499 to $2,850; and three-bedrooms from $3,430 to $3,800.
The complex offers a game room, 24/7 concierge service, complimentary wireless Internet in select common areas, and out-of-town services such as mail, newspaper and package pickup.
Other features, either already available or scheduled to be opened in the future, include patio/lounge area with fire pit, riverview barbecuing, swimming pool with landscaped deck, hot tub/spa, a courtyard garden, a fitness center, business center, dry cleaners and a 450-car parking garage located across Allegheny Valley Railroad Street.
As the Cork Factory nears completion, Hammel and Beynon can look back on nearly 11 years of frustration since they bought the property in a bankruptcy court sale in 1996.
Several times other investors had come board to help with the project, only to drop out before it could move forward.
“Today is culmination of a lot of hard work,” said Hammell, owner of the Pitt-Ohio Express trucking company in the Strip District. Beynon is owner of Beynon & Co., a Pittsburgh-based real estate and insurance company.
“I think it’s awesome what they’ve done with that building,” said Larry Lagattuta, owner of The Enrico Biscotti Co., an Italian bakery and cafe at 2202 Penn Ave. in the Strip.
“I think this can only help the Strip when you have more people living here,” said Lagattuta, whose has operated his business within two blocks of the Cork Factory for 15 years.
Lagattuta said his only concern is that the Cork Factory and other new developments in the Strip could attract national chains and franchise retailers, coffee shops, and the like that could possibly hurt locally owned businesses.
“We have to be careful about how those things happen,” he said. “But otherwise, lets get the people moving in and start shopping in the Strip,” he said.
“The Cork Factory is an excellent addition to the downtown housing mix,” said Patty Burk, vice president of housing and economic development for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.
“It adds to the diversity of units and income ranges that we are trying to achieve Downtown. It also represents the ‘New Downtown,’ which is becoming a mixed-use environment.”
“Even when were living in Murrysville, we would come into the city at the minimum, three days a week, for cultural events and ball games,” Dougherty said. “We loved the city so much, so we visited a few other loft apartments, but when we walked into the Cork Factory, we stopped. We said this was it.”