PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[AaronPGH]

I would give a kidney to see RiverParc come to fruition soon.

[markson33]

Its a shame the project got canceled in the first place. The Cultural Trust jumped the gun on this one.

I'm not too concerned about the historic buildings in this stretch. I've always said that preservationist too often don't give architects enough credit to create something new that is even better than what was there before.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by photoLith

^
That Goodyear is absolutely atrocious, but there are about 5 really good looking buildings on that plot of land, especially on Penn Ave between 7th and 8th street.

Before everyone starts freaking out, the Riverparc plan called for "no historic buildings to be demolished; the new buildings will be erected around them".

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/loca...team-title-in-cultural-trust-bid-441586/

[photoLith]

Yay!!! That's how it should be done.

[Evergrey]

BrianTH may be able to provide some insight.

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...rghs-next-thriving-apartment.html?page=2

Pittsburgh's next thriving apartment market?

“I haven’t seen apartments go that fast. It was wonderful.”

Time for quick quiz.

David Farkas, director of the Main Streets program for the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, was talking about a new successful multifamily project in which of the following communities: downtown Pittsburgh, Oakland, the Strip District, or East Liberty?

The answer: none of the above.

It’s in Wilkinsburg, where the preservation nonprofit recently completed two combined projects, the 33-unit Crescent Apartments and the four-unit Wilson Apartments, two buildings that still carried some historic value after being empty and neglected for years, which the PHLF developed using a host of public funding sources that included historic tax credits, affordable housing tax credits and other state loans and grants.

Farkas told the story of PHLF’s work in Wilkinsburg, where it has invested a total of $14 million on a variety of projects, at the Statewide Conference on Heritage, which is being held from July 16 through 19 at the Omni William Penn Hotel.

The organization has also worked to restore a number of single family homes in the neighborhood, a struggling eastern suburb just off Penn Avenue from the city neighborhoods of Regent Square, Homewood and Point Breeze.

...

I’d watch Wilkinsburg for some key advantages that could begin to overcome its many problems: some quality building stock, plenty of flat land, a location close to the city and a hub for the busway. And the region's apartment market remains strong.

...

[photoLith]

I've always thought wilkensburg should be thriving and not a ghetto because it has tons of amazing architecture, and is the closest urban area to the suburbs of monroeville. So if you wanted to live in an urban setting and had a job in suburbia, wilkensburg would be your best choice.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by photoLith

I've always thought wilkensburg should be thriving and not a ghetto because it has tons of amazing architecture, and is the closest urban area to the suburbs of monroeville. So if you wanted to live in an urban setting and had a job in suburbia, wilkensburg would be your best choice.

You should check out the Blackridge neighborhood of Wilkinsburg and tell me if that fits in with your definition of "ghetto".

[Private Dick]

I've always though of the Blackridge area as more a part of Churchill, but maybe some is in Wilkinsburg?

Regardless, a large portion of Wilkinsburg (I'm thinking the area in proximity to Regent Square and west of the Busway)... I wouldn't consider "ghetto" anyway.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by Private Dick

I've always though of the Blackridge area as more a part of Churchill, but maybe some is in Wilkinsburg?

Regardless, a large portion of Wilkinsburg (I'm thinking the area in proximity to Regent Square and west of the Busway)... I wouldn't consider "ghetto" anyway.

Blackridge resides in Wilkinsburg, Churchill and Penn Hills.

BrianTH could probably provide more specifics.

[BrianTH]

RiverParc thoughts:

(1) I'd love to get excited about that article, but from my outside view it appears to me they may have a litigation interest in not admitting the project is actually dead. So to be blunt, until they announce something concrete about new and substantial steps being taken, I wouldn't get too hopeful;

(2) Some of this historic buildings in the RiverParc footprint are already moving ahead with their own restoration projects, so that's definitely going to have to be taken into account. Still, there is a LOT of space that will be available in that site, and any sort of "modular" design like the one RiverParc had should be able to work around that (and personally, I don't mind at all having super modern stuff jammed right up against historic buildings);

(3) Conversely, I don't at all buy the argument that modern design can substitute for historic structures if it is nice enough. There are different sorts of values at play with historic structures that cannot be replicated with modern builds, no matter how nice;

(4) All that said, I still wonder if the best thing that could happen would be for the Cultural Trust to just get out of this situation and let other developers take over. In fact a mix of developers would automatically lead to a "modular" approach.

[AaronPGH]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

RiverParc thoughts:

(4) All that said, I still wonder if the best thing that could happen would be for the Cultural Trust to just get out of this situation and let other developers take over. In fact a mix of developers would automatically lead to a "modular" approach.

I'd just hate for this gorgeous plan to be shelved in favor of something of lower quality design. And honestly, I haven't seen anything in town other than PNC Tower come close to RiverParc. It all came from Europeans winning a design competition. You know?

[BrianTH]

This map is quite helpful in terms of defining Wilkinsburg's various neighborhoods and identifying which are in better or worse shape (it picks out both the Blackridge area and the Regent Square area mentioned above, for example):

[BrianTH]

Incidentally, it is no real surprise that people are talking about Wilkinsburg as a tight apartment market. Rents have been trending up for a while, people are investing in renovating rental places (particularly in the blue areas in that map but increasingly in green areas as well), and so on. That little summary seems dead on as to the factors why, and I'd just add that if you look at lots of places in Wilkinsburg in person, they are not going to come across as worse than most of the competitive places you might be considering (meaning with similar prices and convenience of location), with the possible exception of those pink areas.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

I'd just hate for this gorgeous plan to be shelved in favor of something of lower quality design. And honestly, I haven't seen anything in town other than PNC Tower come close to RiverParc. It all came from Europeans winning a design competition. You know?

I hear you, but I really think that version of RiverParc is likely dead.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by photoLith

I've always thought wilkensburg should be thriving and not a ghetto because it has tons of amazing architecture, and is the closest urban area to the suburbs of monroeville. So if you wanted to live in an urban setting and had a job in suburbia, wilkensburg would be your best choice.

As the east end - Lawrenceville, East Liberty, now that Larmier plan get built up and built out, I would think development/renovations would keep moving east into the dense and good-bones architecture of Wilkinsburg.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

As the east end - Lawrenceville, East Liberty, now that Larmier plan get built up and built out, I would think development/renovations would keep moving east into the dense and good-bones architecture of Wilkinsburg.

You can almost see the outside-in dynamic happening in that map I linked. On the ground, it is most noticeable in the Greater Park Place/Peebles Square/Kelly West area (between Forbes and Penn, west of the Busway). All the way to the west (what they call Greater Park Place), it is already the nicest part with the highest home values and rents. But places are getting renovated farther and farther east, including a whole new development in Peebles Square, and just looking at things like what properties are selling for I think it is obvious housing prices are tracking up as well.

So no question, the East End is pushing into Wilkinsburg in very tangible ways. Which makes perfect sense--housing is so tight in the East End there has to be a new supply of marketable units coming along somewhere, and Wilkinsburg is well-suited to this sort of gradual expansion of reinvestment.

That said, I think the big question is whether something will come along to jump start the commercial district. Again, particularly in the western part, it isn't nearly as bad as some people seem to think. Nonetheless, it could certainly use something like the Eastside development near the Busway, which could be a complete gamechanger.

[Found5dollar]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

This map is quite helpful in terms of defining Wilkinsburg's various neighborhoods and identifying which are in better or worse shape (it picks out both the Blackridge area and the Regent Square area mentioned above, for example):

I have always wondered why Regent Square is called Regent square. There is no square in the area, but this image may have a hint. it looks like it is almost a square in shape.

[Found5dollar]

It looks like steel is starting to Rise at the Tower at PNC Place! http://www.thetoweratpncplaza.com/

does anyone have eyes on it and can confirm?

[Austinlee]

WOW, i'm very surprised to see Riverparc as one of the top articles in the Trib out of nowhere; I'm wondering if the Cultural Trust planned the number of years Concord Eastridge's large lawsuit would be tied up in court to allow the housing market to recover from the national housing drop. Now that home values have recovered and there are news articles left and right in both Pittsburgh and many other markets across the US about price appreciation that they will move ahead with some version or redesign of the project rather than possibly pay over $5 million in restitution to the stinted developer.

Consumer confidence is back so hopefully Riverparc is on it's way back too.

Originally Posted by photoLith

^
That project looks awesome, but yet again they will be tearing down a whole shit load of historic buildings for that, ugh. Unless, of course they incorporate them and I cant really tell from that rendering, but either way, I dont ever see that project happening.

Why? The Cultural Trust has deep pockets and is very smart and careful about redeveloping this very classy and historic district of Pittsburgh. They have one of the best track records for bringing downtown back from the dead in the last couple of decades.

[photoLith]

Where do they get their money from?