PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown I

[themaguffin]

Let's face that site is an incredible location. There's no way it would have been on the market long.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by chiaroscuro

Anyone able to read the text on the Baum-Liberty site plan drawing?

Hey dude: Click on the link right above that rendering that says "Media Kit". It opens as a PDF and is larger and readable.

[Johnland]

I will definitely look at this Baum-Liberty site when I consider moving back to Pittsburgh. I've already been eyeing those great old houses in Friendship. But maybe a new condo in that same neighborhood would be the perfect choice....

[Evergrey]

more on the Don Allen site

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08011/848413-85.stm

Major development riding at Don Allen site

Friday, January 11, 2008
By Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It was early 2006 when developers Phil Hugh and John Economou first sat down with the owners of Bloomfield's Don Allen Auto City and discussed what to do with one of the most valuable plots of real estate in Pittsburgh's East End.

"They wanted to look at other options," Mr. Economou said. But, also, "they wanted to do right by the city of Pittsburgh."

The result, 19 months later, is that Mr. Hugh and Mr. Economou now have an agreement to assume majority control of the dealership's seven-acre, three-block swath at the nexus of Shadyside, Bloomfield and East Liberty. Their plan, unveiled yesterday, is to tear down the Don Allen buildings and fill the space along Baum Boulevard and Liberty Avenue with a mix of townhouses, condominiums, a 120-room hotel, and 700,000 square feet of office, medical and retail space.

As proposed, the project is expected to cost $220 million-$230 million and take as long as four years. Pending city approval, it would become the biggest mixed-use development currently under way in the East End, bigger even than Walnut Capital Partners' $113 million transformation of an old Penn Avenue Nabisco bakery into a shopping-residential-hotel complex. It joins a slew of other developments to hit that part of the city, from the Hillman Cancer Center on Baum to Eastside, a Centre Avenue retail complex anchored by organic grocer Whole Foods.

For Mr. Hugh and Mr. Economou, both principals with the development team known as DOC-Economou, this is their second major project in the Pittsburgh area. Just last month the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority sold DOC-Economou an acre in the SouthSide Works complex on the South Side for a $48 million luxury hotel-condo-retail project scheduled to open in summer 2009.

Their South Side complex will be built with private money, but Mr. Hugh and Mr. Economou acknowledge they hope to secure public financing to assist with Bloomfield, although they were not willing to specify what type or how much.

"We certainly want to have open lines with local and state officials to see what options are there to produce the best possible project," said Mr. Hugh, who is originally from Fairchance, Fayette County.

DOC-Economou is a joint venture of two separate real estate operators, Fort Myers, Fla.-based Development Opportunity Corp., founded in 2005, and Economou Partners, a firm based in the Chicago area and founded in 1989. The joint venture also has an office in Pine. The venture's recent projects in other parts of the country include The Residences on Water, a mixed-use project in Milwaukee slated to open this spring and the renovation of a Fort Myers Holiday Inn. DOC, on its own Web site, also lists a Hotel Indigo and Dunkin' Donuts in Fort Myers, along with a hotel in Slippery Rock.

Mr. Hugh, who attended Allegheny College and grew up near Uniontown, said he "always wanted to come back to the city. Pittsburgh is a special place and there is a lot of opportunity in the city."

His connection to the Voelker family, which controls the Don Allen dealership, was through his attorney Brenda Yurick, who also happened to represent the Voelkers. Their first meeting was 19 months ago, and last week the family informed 80 employees that the dealership, in the Voelkers' hands for 50 years, would be sold due to a crush of competition from suburban dealers.

Despite the sale, though, the Voelker family will become a minority partner in the new development, confirmed Mr. Hugh and Mr. Economou.

The DOC-Economou partnership intends to spend $18 million buying the dealership, a contiguous home at 466 South Atlantic Ave. and a site at 5425 Baum owned by The Children's Home. The entire project, including the real estate purchases, will cost $220 million to $230 million and may take a total of four years to complete, built in phases to minimize the impact on the surrounding neighborhoods.

Spanning three blocks, the development will include 350,000 square feet of "boutique" retail, 58,000 square feet of street-level "commercial" retail, 300,000 square feet of office and medical space and a nine-story, 120-room hotel with the upper levels reserved for 150 condos and townhomes. Between 1,200 and 1,500 spaces of parking will be on the lower levels.

The goal is to start site preparation work this summer, pending city approval.

Dan Fitzpatrick can be reached at [email protected] or 412-263-1752.

...

these are the same developers that are doing this mixed-use project at SSW:

[AaronPGH]

Such amazing news! I didn't expect an announcement this fast......awesome!

[Evergrey]

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2008/01/07/focus1.html?b=1199682000^1570680


Friday, January 4, 2008

Meet the new neighbors

Office tenants lag behind retail stores when it comes to new mixed-use projects

Pittsburgh Business Times - by Tim Schooley


Joe Wojcik
Millcraft Industries has had a retail-before-office experience at its Piatt Place development, Downtown, which houses two restaurants but no office tenants yet.

Lori Moran waited a year to be able to pour some "gravy" on the highly successful Trader Joe's store she helped draw to the Village of EastSide.

While the region's first Trader Joe's opened at the East Liberty shopping center last November, the rest of the building -- including retail space on the ground level and office space upstairs -- remained vacant.

Ballymoney & Co. Inc., which owns the center, only recently signed tenants for the rest of the building.

Relax the Back will take about 3,000 square feet next to Trader Joe's. And Children's Community Pediatrics, the office practice of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, will take 5,000 square feet of office space upstairs.

To Moran, the lag between the time it took to get the right office tenant to match a now thriving grocery store was in keeping with the project's expectations.

"We weren't focused on that," she said of the office leasing. "Our first focus was first-floor retail."

"It was gravy," she said of the project's office space.

Throughout the city, mixed-use developments have opened with a retail splash followed by the echo of empty space that's come from offices sitting vacant long after stores and restaurants are open.

Along with Ballymoney's project, the majority of the SouthSide Works had opened its retail before it leased much of its office space. Downtown, Millcraft Industries has opened two high-profile restaurants -- The Capital Grille and McCormick & Schmick's -- in its redevelopment of the former Lazarus department store, now called Piatt Place. Yet even though the renovation plans were announced in December 2005, no office leases have been signed.

Jeremy Kronman, an executive vice president who specializes in office leasing for CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh, emphasized that major office leasing announcements are on the way for Piatt Place. He expects a similar leasing lag time will happen at Bakery Square at EastSide. There, Walnut Capital Partners is redeveloping the former Nabisco bakery next door to BallyMoney's center into a mixed-use development comprising 216,000 square feet of office space and 121,000 square feet of retail, along with a 110-room hotel.

"We came in at the same time," said Kronman of working on office leasing for mixed-use projects. "But the life cycle of an office building transaction, especially a big one, is much longer than a retail lease."

He estimated that a retailer can commit to a lease and be open and operating within six months. But an office tenant can take two or three years.

Ed Gould, the business services director for Children's Community Pediatrics, said it took more than a year between exploring locations, deciding on one, then negotiating a lease, building out office space and then moving in and opening for business.

"There was a lot of going back and forth," Gould said. "A lot of that had to do with the fact that it was a mixed-use building and it was in a retail center."

Negotiations are far more complicated than financial terms, Gould said.

Delivery times for the stores were negotiated, as was trash disposal. As always, a primary issue to be hashed out was parking.

"One of our chief concerns is if you go to a strip mall, it's open parking -- catch as catch can," he said. "We wanted to have some defined parking, so moms knew they aren't chucking kids through moving lanes of traffic."

Children's Community Practice was able to establish eight nearby parking spaces specifically for pregnant women and mothers of newborns and moved in a month ago, operating an office in space developed with plenty of environmentally sensitive materials and other green components.

Russ Jenkins, who observed plenty of mixed-use developments as an official with the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority and now serves as a leasing associate with Johnstown-based Zamias Services, said that where to put the cars can become a predominant issue in such projects.

The integration of uses can mean the difference between success and failure, he said.

"From a leasing perspective, design is critical," he said. "The placement of parking is even more critical in that sense because you can't have your office employees parking in the prime retail spots."

[email protected] | (412) 208-3826

[Evergrey]

KDKA reports the Steelers will unveil major plans for the North Shore parking lot next to Heinz Field. They are working with entertainment giant AEG and HOK architects to build a 2,000-3,000 music venue and nightclub designed to attract top-flight music acts. (this is what I've been hoping for! must better than the previous amphitheatre plan) KDKA also reports plans for a "waterfront hotel" on the North Shore... not sure if that's anything we've heard about already... or if it's related to the Steelers' development.

http://kdka.com/video/[email protected]

http://kdka.com/steelers/Steelers.Entertainment.Venue.2.628055.html

Steelers To Build North Shore Theater-Nightclub


Reporting
Andy Sheehan

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― The season may be over for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but the games are just beginning off the field.

The team ownership has some major entertainment plans in the works right next to Heinz Field.

KDKA Investigator Andy Sheehan has learned the Steelers have formed a partnership with an entertainment giant AEG to build another type of venue described as a theater-nightclub to bring top flight music acts to the North Shore.

They've enlisted stadium architects HOK of Kansas City to design it.

AEG operates several venues across the country, including the Nokia Theater adjacent to the Staples Center in Los Angeles and another Nokia Theater in mid-town Manhattan.

And although the Steelers venue is expected to be considerably smaller than those places - the building will be able to accommodate between 2,000-3,000 patrons and even host larger outdoor shows in the summer.

Sources say the Steelers and AEG will foot most of the bill with some expected help from the state.

Four years ago, the Steelers were awarded $4 million from the state to build an amphitheater on the site. When those plans fell through, the Steelers gave that money to the Sports and Exhibition Authority to building a parking garage. The Steelers aren't commenting but indications are they'll want that money back to complete this project

The club-theater will also go a long way to making the North Shore a year-round entertainment destination. The concert dates will help nearby bars and restaurants which are often packed on Steeler or Pirate game days but not so much when the stadiums are dark.

And the North Shore development keeps getting new players. Additional plans are in the works for a new hotel on or near the waterfront.

Like the Steelers theater, those plans are also expected to be announced very soon.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)



...



btw, WTAE's Andrew Stockey reports on Duquesne University's brand new Power Center:

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/video/14997252/index.html

[Gilamonster]

Now this is exciting news! That type of music venue would be a big hit in Pittsburgh, filling the void that has allready been discussed on this forum. I don't like the idea of a hotel in that area though. Even on the waterfront, it somehow seems out of place to me.

[UrbaniDesDev]

Originally Posted by chucka

Baum-Liberty
They have renderings:

http://doceconomou.com/baum-liberty/

Media Kit







I think it looks great.

This is very exciting. Very conservative design but the size and scale is overwhelming. This would close the gap between Shadyside, Bloomfield & Friendship. I've often looked up Aiken from Walnut at that lot. Centered as the focal point and imagined the great possibilities. The design pays homage to the wonderful apartments flanking Aiken on Centre. Im glad the project will be keeping the street face and keep the neighborhood's fabric, unlike the Marriot between Baum and Center. Im sure this will mean they will be sprucing up that odd and forgotten War memorial in front of the project. I was just there today looking at this curious thing. Again very exciting, and the developers are serious into Pittsburgh. GREAT!

[bucks native]

Best cities for retirees/emply nesters:

Best Cities for Retirees
Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh? Yes, the former steel city not only is picturesque -- built on green hills -- but also is very affordable and filled with museums, great restaurants, and interesting neighborhoods. Best of all for retirees, its economy now is driven by "eds and meds." This combination of education and medical facilities means health-care options and continuous learning.

[marinog]

please tell me this venue will fill the void that has been left since club laga closed down... Im sick of having to drive to cleveland or columbus for a show...

[marinog]

http://www.pittsburghpostgazette.com/pg/08012/848703-55.stm

East Carson Street to be upgraded
2-year effort secures funding for improvements at SouthSide Works
Saturday, January 12, 2008
By Joe Grata, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
After two years of trying, the city has cobbled together a complex $15 million financial package to upgrade about one mile of congested East Carson Street/Route 837 near the SouthSide Works development.

Construction is to begin this fall to widen the street to four lanes and provide turning lanes at seven signalized intersections from 25th Street to a half-mile west of Becks Run Road. The project also will mean new sidewalks, street lights, trees and landscaping.

Pennsylvania U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter and Bob Casey are to hold a news conference Monday morning at the SouthSide Works Cinema to announce $1,225,000 in special federal funding to complete the financial package.

While the money represents less than 10 percent of the cost, "it's an important piece of the pie," said John Coyne, engineering and construction director for the city Urban Redevelopment Authority, which is donating two acres at the old brownfield site to provide right-of-way for the widening.

"We wanted to do this work in 2006," he said, "but we were unable to come up with sufficient federal funds" in the region's Transportation Improvement Program, which governs highway, bridge and transit spending.

The URA's land donation will count toward the local share of costs, as will the replacement of an old 20-inch water main by the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority. Another $3 million will come from the Governor's Economic Development Discretionary Fund.

The URA paid the 20 percent local share used to match 80 percent federal money spent to design and engineer the project.

Officials said the East Carson Street widening will improve safety for pedestrians as well as help with traffic on the busy thoroughfare, where economic development has mushroomed over the past four years.

Joe Grata can be reached at [email protected].

[Evergrey]

little rundown of development news:

1. Salvation Army buys $3.3M Carnegie site for HQ move

Vacating Downtown building for a "high profile suburban" site along Parkway West. Downtown HQ building (9 stories, 85,000 sq. ft.) is being marketed for sale by CB Richard Ellis.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_547056.html

2. Ambridge Area: New high school 'bright' 'beautiful', up to date

Ambridge replaced their 80-year old high school.


from Ambridge school district website

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08010/847973-57.stm

3. Brownfield site renewal may revitalize Haysville

Haysville is a tiny town (pop. 78) along the Ohio River near Sewickley. They are developing for brownfield for what appears to be light manufacturing uses.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08010/847948-54.stm

4. Not so fast, Paul Bunyan

Some are alarmed by city's haste in cutting down 'hazardous' trees

The city has an ambitious tree removal plan that has stirred up much controversy, particularly in the 14th ward, which includes Squirrel Hill and Point Breeze. This area has the most street trees in the city and would see a removal of 555 trees deemed as liabilities due to structural damage.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08012/848706-53.stm



5. Progress seen in Hill-arena talks

City and Penguins have pledged $2 million towards neighborhood grocery.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08012/848760-53.stm

6. Prosit! German-style beer hall OK'd for SouthSide Works

Friday, January 11, 2008
By Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When the Cincinnati Reds played at home, owners of the Hofbrauhaus, a German-style beer hall in nearby Newport, Ky., noticed that business was very good. But when the Pirates came to town, they found business to be even better.

Thus, the seeds were planted to build only the third Hofbrauhaus in the United States, in Pittsburgh at the SouthSide Works.

After lengthy delays, including concerns about the impact of Allegheny County's recently enacted 10 percent drink tax, the city Urban Redevelopment Authority board cleared the way yesterday for construction of the restaurant, which will be built behind the Cheesecake Factory, facing the Monongahela River.

The other Hofbrauhaus is in Las Vegas.

At one time, officials hoped to open the Pittsburgh Hofbrauhaus, which will feature a brew pub and an outdoor beer garden, by spring 2006. Now they are shooting for an opening in late October or early November.

Nick Ellison, managing member of Hofbrauhaus Pittsburgh LLC, said the project was held up by a number of issues. One involved disclosures required by the federal government. Another was delays in getting the site it wanted in the SouthSide Works.

Mr. Ellison said the $3.8 million project also was nearly derailed by the county's 10 percent drink tax, which caused some investors to become skittish and forced Hofbrauhaus Pittsburgh LLC to restructure its financing.

"We're going ahead, but we're concerned about it," Mr. Ellison said.

The South Side Hofbrauhaus will feature bench-style seating for about 600 people indoors and another 400 outside. It and the two others are patterned after Munich's famous Hofbrauhaus, which was founded in the late 16th century.

Mr. Ellison said about 99 percent of the beer consumed there will be brewed on the premises. Beer will be served in one liter and half-liter glass mugs. The menu will feature authentic German food as well as standard American fare like sandwiches and salads.

The restaurant will employ about 200 people and have a $2 million payroll.

The board also accepted a $600,000 state Growing Greener II grant to be used for the Carlyle condominium project Downtown, despite concerns by state Sen. Jim Ferlo, a board member, about whether prevailing wages were being paid and about union participation in the development. The grant will be used to replace a utility vault.

David W. Bishoff, president of Columbus, Ohio-based E.V. Bishoff Co., the developer, said he did not know if prevailing wages were being paid, but added that would be determined by a state audit required as part of the grant.

Mark Belko can be reached at [email protected] or 412-263-1262.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08011/848352-55.stm

[chiaroscuro]

Originally Posted by PA Pride

Hey dude: Click on the link right above that rendering that says "Media Kit". It opens as a PDF and is larger and readable.

Dude, I did!! Enlarged it and everything. Got my glasses on too. Can't read a thing! Oh well...

[Austinlee]

Chiaro: well, on second look you're right: it is pretty much unreadable.

[Evergrey]

here's some development related photos I took today...

1. Montrose Exchange - East Liberty



I just found this link related to this development. It will feature an Indigo Hotel.

http://www.cbre.com/USA/US/PA/Pittsburgh+Partner/property/MontroseExchange





BROCHURE





2. Bakery Square - Larimer

Major mixed-use development



http://www.bakery-square.com/

3. Bedford Hill expansion - Hill District

This is the continuation of one of the major residential developments that have been taking place in the Hill District.









4. Greyhound garage - Downtown



5. some new houses on Mt. Washington's Aline St.

[Austinlee]

Good update Evergrey. Thanks!

[Evergrey]

Grubb & Ellis 2008 market forecasts:

Office: 2008 will see a tightening CBD joining its suburban counerparts as markets with a reduced number of large blocks of space.


Industrial: A quick comparison of statistics between year-end 2006 and 2007 indicates 2007 was an eventful year for the Pittsburgh industrial market.

Retail: Concerns over the collapse of the subprime loan market have not yet
significantly reduced consumer confidence in the region. Improved
employment levels are forecasted over the next two years, supporting
gains in personal income which will sustain growth in retail activity.

[JackStraw]

I wonder if the theater/nightclub is going to seriously get built. This would be a real good thing if that could come to the north shore.

Thanks for those pics evergrey. I just drove through the hill for the first time in a long time today. Wow, I am amazed by all the new residentail projects going up there.

Urbandesigndev-excellent find on those renderings on liberty.

[Johnland]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

here's some development related photos I took today...

5. some new houses on Mt. Washington's Aline St.

I really love the clean, contemporary design of these townhomes. I've noticed that this style has been a part of the new developments here and there in Pittsburgh. Just one of the urban aspects about Pittsburgh that make it a cut above ( a big cut above) places like Tampa. There is that mix of modern set against older, established styles - they all work to make a rich urban fabric.