PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[Steel City Scotty]

Originally Posted by DKNewYork

I don't know if Braddock has only one restaurant, but Kevin Sousa (chef/developer of Salt of the Earth in Garfield) recently opened Magarac in Braddock. Not only that, but apparently he and his family moved to Braddock.

Thanks for the feedback.

I was actually just talking to a woman from Pittsburgh at a development conference I attended last week, and she recommended I eat at Salt of the Earth during my next trip to town. Of course, I've also had a few people tell me to stay out of the Garfield neighborhood...

I think it's great that Sousa is opening up popular attractions in areas that have reputations for being undesirable. Maybe that's the first step to an image makeover...

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Private Dick

Like them? Yikes...

The only one I like is the second one in the list above, the one in East Liberty on Penn. Not surprising it is the only one NOT designed by Rothschild Doyno. Not sure what their deal is with the multi-colored red, brown, orange, and yellow brick motif... but I'm definitely not a fan. I guess I'm just not getting it... kinda like I don't get the Hyatt Place on the Northshore or the Hampton Inn Oakland revamp... why the crapola colors?

Agreed. The palette is disgusting.

[glowrock]

Originally Posted by Steel City Scotty

Thanks for the feedback.

I was actually just talking to a woman from Pittsburgh at a development conference I attended last week, and she recommended I eat at Salt of the Earth during my next trip to town. Of course, I've also had a few people tell me to stay out of the Garfield neighborhood...

I think it's great that Sousa is opening up popular attractions in areas that have reputations for being undesirable. Maybe that's the first step to an image makeover...

Salt of the Earth is an amazing restaurant. You definitely should try it out!

Aaron (Glowrock)

[BrianTH]

There is a significant build-out component to this story about Carnegie Robotics, a CMU spinoff, deciding to consolidate and expand in Lawrenceville:

http://www.popcitymedia.com/devnews/robotics101613.aspx

The 100-year-old Heppenstall Building, located at 4501 Hatfield Street and owned by RIDC, includes three-and-a-half acres of property and will be refitted to suit the company’s needs using various teams of contractors. Its 29,000 square feet will be expanded both through adding floors to the current warehouse and and the addition of a sub-building.

The location:

http://goo.gl/maps/0iTTd

Not as sexy maybe as a new apartment complex or office tower, but still a nice job-generator for the area, and in fact fostering local interactions was the basis for the site location decision:

“We’re on a consistent march and here to stay,” says Bares, who added that while the company looked at space in the greater Pittsburgh area outside the city limits, it settled on the old Lawrenceville warehouse to both stay close to its current partners and to the Carnegie Mellon Campus.

“There’s a huge advantage to us to remain in the city,” he says. “It’s where the great talent is.”

On a similar theme, Alpha Labs has signed its lease for space in East Liberty, where there is an emerging tech cluster:

http://www.popcitymedia.com/devnews/alphalab101613.aspx

Colliers International, the leasing agent for the new East Liberty developments at Indigo Square and the nearby space on Broad Street, confirmed that AlphaLab will occupy 10,000 square feet and its lease includes rights to expand. The space, located at 6024 Broad Street, places it right next door to Thrill Mill and its business incubator, HustleDen, and within close proximity to the Tech Shop and Google’s Pittsburgh headquarters.

“It’s great to have these types of business. If we can mash together enough high-tech, like-minded startup groups, that can start a great tech community in that area,” says Mark Anderson, vice president of office and retail brokerage with Colliers.

[BrianTH]

The Planning Commission has (reluctantly) approved historic designation for the Produce Terminal:

http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/4888302-74/historic-building-produce#axzz2ht8aVqtN

The last step will be for the City Council to vote on the issue. Note designation does not mean the Produce Terminal cannot be altered as part of a Strip redevelopment process, but it does mean any such plans will have to be approved by the HRC.

[DKNewYork]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

The Planning Commission has (reluctantly) approved historic designation for the Produce Terminal:

http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/4888302-74/historic-building-produce#axzz2ht8aVqtN

The last step will be for the City Council to vote on the issue. Note designation does not mean the Produce Terminal cannot be altered as part of a Strip redevelopment process, but it does mean any such plans will have to be approved by the HRC.

Anyone know how long the URA has owned the Produce Terminal? It seems to me that it has been quite a few years. Or did the URA somehow take possession only after Buncher's plans began to gel?

[doo dah]

Originally Posted by DKNewYork

Anyone know how long the URA has owned the Produce Terminal? It seems to me that it has been quite a few years. Or did the URA somehow take possession only after Buncher's plans began to gel?

Looks like the deed was recorded in 1983:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/nxebtnw

[summersm343]

Cool info on Philly and Pitt

Central Business Districts:

1. Center City, Philadelphia- 288,227 jobs
2. Downtown, Pittsburgh- 153,224 jobs
3. Oakland, Pittsburgh- 79,896
4. University City, Philadelphia- 79,368

http://definingdowntown.org/wp-conte...townReport.pdf

Population of Downtown area:

1. Center City, Philadelphia- 92,000
2. University City, Philadelphia- 48,589
3. Oakland, Pittsburgh- 22,210
4. Downtown, Pittsburgh- 7,796


Population 1 Mile surrounding CBD:

1. Center City- 170,467
2. University City- 116,609
3. Downtown Pitt- 69,534
4. Oakland Pitt- 55,591



Why is there no interest in residential development in Downtown Pittsburgh?
Is there any large scale developments going on in Oakland? At what percentage is Oakland growing job wise? Oakland has been the third largest CBD in PA for a while but University City might pass it in the next few years. It is growing at nearly 30% a decade job wise.

[BrianTH]

There are a lot of residential projects in the Downtown pipeline, and more being added all the time. Planned new residential in the Lower Hill and Near Strip (and North Shore if it ever happens) will also be more or less Downtown-centric, and Uptown is sort of an Oakland/Downtown middle ground. Of course it will be a LOOOOONG time before Downtown Pittsburgh approaches anywhere near where Center City Philly currently is in terms of residential density (and I suspect we will never actually catch them), but there is definitely a very positive, self-reinforcing, residential dynamic going on in and around Downtown right now.

Oakland itself has pretty severe capacity constraints--vacancies are effectively zero, and there are not many developable sites. There are a few projects in the works here and there, but the main expansion of university- and hospital-related jobs locations (related in a very broad sense) is happening in other East End locations, like East Liberty/Larimer, the Baum/Centre corridor, Lawrenceville, and so on. Eventually the Hazelwood LTV site will get in on that too. All of which is fine--the whole East End is compact enough that it can serve as one big college town (although it will definitely need further upgrades to the transit and bike system along the way).

Edit: You can also see Oakland's capacity issue reflected in the fact its "commercial downtown" (not sure how that is defined) made the "extremely high" jobs density list. Downtown Pittsburgh was merely "high" density, and in fact by their numbers Oakland had about twice Downtown's jobs density (which seems strange to me, but maybe not if you are really just looking at the core commercial part of Oakland).

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

There are a lot of residential projects in the Downtown pipeline, and more being added all the time. Planned new residential in the Lower Hill and Near Strip (and North Shore if it ever happens) will also be more or less Downtown-centric, and Uptown is sort of an Oakland/Downtown middle ground. Of course it will be a LOOOOONG time before Downtown Pittsburgh approaches anywhere near where Center City Philly currently is in terms of residential density (and I suspect we will never actually catch them), but there is definitely a very positive, self-reinforcing, residential dynamic going on in and around Downtown right now.

Oakland itself has pretty severe capacity constraints--vacancies are effectively zero, and there are not many developable sites. There are a few projects in the works here and there, but the main expansion of university- and hospital-related jobs locations (related in a very broad sense) is happening in other East End locations, like East Liberty/Larimer, the Baum/Centre corridor, Lawrenceville, and so on. Eventually the Hazelwood LTV site will get in on that too. All of which is fine--the whole East End is compact enough that it can serve as one big college town (although it will definitely need further upgrades to the transit and bike system along the way).

Edit: You can also see Oakland's capacity issue reflected in the fact its "commercial downtown" (not sure how that is defined) made the "extremely high" jobs density list. Downtown Pittsburgh was merely "high" density, and in fact by their numbers Oakland had about twice Downtown's jobs density (which seems strange to me, but maybe not if you are really just looking at the core commercial part of Oakland).

Really? Oakland is built to capacity? I see plenty of parking lots/open grass lawns. Sorry I've only been to Oakland once so I'm not very familiar with it. I don't expect Downtown Pittsburgh to ever catch Center City in population (since it is growing at about 16% a decade) but I would expect more population than is currently there. Pittsburgh certainly punches above it's weight in office space/jobs in Downtown where in this aspect Center City under performs. Maybe the cities should take cues from each other? haha

[photoLith]

As Pittsburghs downtown population grows, so will Phillys. The two will never be equal.

[LMich]

The downtown Philly and Pittsburgh comparisons aren't apples-to-apples comparisons for the simple fact of geography. Because of the rivers and how American downtowns are typically laid out, Pittsburgh downtown has a significantly smaller footprint; it's literally three times smaller in area than Center City. So, there is going to be less room for residential development to begin with, unless every bit of housing downtown is concentrated into residential skyscrapers.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Really? Oakland is built to capacity? I see plenty of parking lots/open grass lawns.

The green spaces are mostly deliberate and won't easily be taken for development. That is sorta like saying Central Park means Manhattan has tons of developable land.

There is actually not all that much surface parking in the commercial center of Oakland by normal U.S. standards. And much of what there is won't be developable because of particular needs. For example, much of Magee's apparent surface parking is already on top of a garage, and in general they want the surface lots for convenience of ER and baby parkers.

Again, though, all this doesn't mean there will be no new projects in Oakland at all--as far as I know the Oakland Portal project is still moving forward, for example, and I believe Pitt has more building plans as well. But I really do think it is accurate to say that one of the main reasons there has been so much recent university/hospital-related development occurring in the East End outside of Oakland is that Oakland is relatively constrained at this point. Heck, even UPMC's move to Downtown is indicative of that.

[BrianTH]

These captures from Pitt's 2010 Master Plan are pretty illustrative. They have identified a few development opportunities in the core part of Oakland (meaning not including up the hill), but not much, and much of that is now already developed:



In part that is precisely because there wasn't much surface parking in that area:

[glowrock]

Originally Posted by LMich

The downtown Philly and Pittsburgh comparisons aren't apples-to-apples comparisons for the simple fact of geography. Because of the rivers and how American downtowns are typically laid out, Pittsburgh downtown has a significantly smaller footprint; it's literally three times smaller in area than Center City. So, there is going to be less room for residential development to begin with, unless every bit of housing downtown is concentrated into residential skyscrapers.

This is exactly right. Comparing downtown to downtown has always been a nightmare in terms of defining just what the extent of downtown actually is, but in Pittsburgh's case downtown is so constrained by the Mon and Allegheny rivers plus I-579 as to make it both easily definable as well as extremely small in area. As opposed to Center City Philly which is many times larger and doesn't have anywhere near the constraints in terms of geography or topography.

Either way, no doubt that BOTH cities have vibrant, active downtowns!

Aaron (Glowrock)

[Wiz Khalifa]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

You can also see Oakland's capacity issue reflected in the fact its "commercial downtown" (not sure how that is defined) made the "extremely high" jobs density list. Downtown Pittsburgh was merely "high" density, and in fact by their numbers Oakland had about twice Downtown's jobs density (which seems strange to me, but maybe not if you are really just looking at the core commercial part of Oakland).

I think that's because they are including the surrounding neighborhoods with the golden triangle into the calculation of "downtown" job density, which is considerably skewing the numbers for downtown. The strip, uptown, south and north shores all have large empty and/or under-developed areas within their borders. If they just used the ~.65 square miles of the triangle itself, it would easily exceed Oakland in job density.

You cans see the maps of what they are calling "downtown" here.

[Wiz Khalifa]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Cool info on Philly and Pitt

Central Business Districts:

1. Center City, Philadelphia- 288,227 jobs
2. Downtown, Pittsburgh- 153,224 jobs
3. Oakland, Pittsburgh- 79,896
4. University City, Philadelphia- 79,368

These appear to be the job figures for not just the business districts, but also everything within a 1 mile radius of their borders as well. But the the data shown in their maps for 1 mile radius is undercutting these numbers by a few thousand, oddly enough: http://definingdowntown.org/maps/

Not sure where they are getting those extra jobs from, overlap perhaps?

Population of Downtown area:

1. Center City, Philadelphia- 92,000
2. University City, Philadelphia- 48,589
3. Oakland, Pittsburgh- 22,210
4. Downtown, Pittsburgh- 7,796

What exactly constitutes "Center City"? Is it between South and Vine? because that is showing a population of 57,239.

And "University City" from 41st to the river is showing only 23,316.

[George Woods]

Will Pitt/UPMC ever build on that lot behind the PAA? I know it's only one lot, but if they built tall, a lot of square-footage could go in there. When illustrating the lack of available land in Oakland by way of a map, that lot is such a glaring vacancy.

Speaking of the map, it says that the lot holds 35 parking-spaces. Is that a typo? Because way more than 35 cars are in there on a daily basis. And how about the fact that it's labelled "SM". [sigh]

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/life...-independently-owned-restaurants-707903/

Downtown Pittsburgh becoming the hot spot for independently owned restaurants

October 17, 2013 12:24 am


Larry Roberts/Post-Gazette
Chef Brian Pekarcik, right, of Spoon and Curtis Gamble will open Grit & Grace at 535 Liberty Ave.



By Melissa McCart / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

This season will mark the rise of independently owned restaurants Downtown, made possible by the momentum of cultural amenities, sports arenas and hotels reinvigorating the area.

With a handful of indie eateries that have opened since 2011 and some heavy hitters to debut in the next few months, Downtown will surpass all neighborhoods for destination dining.

Naturally, the big dogs look forward to the competition. "It's a positive that so many restaurants are opening Downtown," said Matthew Sterne, the general manager at the Fairmont Pittsburgh hotel, home to Habitat Restaurant and Andys Wine Bar. "You would not have seen even two years ago the numbers of people who are coming here to dine."

One reason why Downtown is so alluring for restaurateurs at the moment is because the price per square foot matches Ohio markets in Cleveland, Cincinnati or Columbus while a restaurant's profit per square foot aligns with Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago, said Herky Pollock, executive vice president and Northeast director of retail services group, CB Richard Ellis. And there's more on the horizon. "I have half a dozen national clients looking to enter the marketplace, each of which would be a huge addition to the lineup," he said.

...

[summersm343]

Originally Posted by Wiz Khalifa

These appear to be the job figures for not just the business districts, but also everything within a 1 mile radius of their borders as well. But the the data shown in their maps for 1 mile radius is undercutting these numbers by a few thousand, oddly enough: http://definingdowntown.org/maps/

Not sure where they are getting those extra jobs from, overlap perhaps?


What exactly constitutes "Center City"? Is it between South and Vine? because that is showing a population of 57,239.

And "University City" from 41st to the river is showing only 23,316.

Most people define Center City now-a-days as Spring Garden to South Street, River to River. And Univeristy City also has lenient boundaries.