PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[MattofSloppyVariety]

Someone asked a few pages back about what they were doing with the old Blockbuster store in Shadyside. Don't get excited, it's just going to be a Levin Mattress store

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by MattofSloppyVariety

Someone asked a few pages back about what they were doing with the old Blockbuster store in Shadyside. Don't get excited, it's just going to be a Levin Mattress store

Mattresses aren't exactly exciting but it's an effect the growth of population in the East End. All those apartments that they're building on Penn and Baum need beds.

[KINGPIN]

If this is the final design(which I'm afraid will be or frighteningly similar) ...what a waste of a golden opprotunity. Check out the rendering in today's trib.

Development revenue intended to ensure Pens long-term survival
Street construction is expected to begin this year on 28 vacant acres at the former Mellon Arena site, which eventually will include housing, offices, shops and entertainment venues.


The Penguins are preparing to break ground on a development that officials say will help sustain the Stanley Cup-winning hockey franchise and rebuild one of Pittsburgh's downtrodden neighborhoods.

Development of the former Mellon Arena site — with an estimated $500 million in apartments, offices, shops and entertainment venues — is expected to begin this year with street construction on the vacant 28 acres. Residential building would begin in 2015.

Pittsburgh officials want to use tax money from the finished project to help redevelop the Hill District and Uptown neighborhoods.

Penguins Chief Operating Officer Travis Williams said the team, through its connection to the neighborhood and national profile, is uniquely positioned to attract investors and produce a quality destination.

“That's an ultimate benefit to the economy and the city,” Williams said. “It certainly has a positive impact on the overall (Penguins) organization and our long-term sustainability.”

That seemed like a remote possibility less than a decade ago, when the Penguins were on the verge of bankruptcy and for sale.


Read more: http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/6800063-74/development-penguins-team#ixzz3FNuBAOPa
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook

[Evergrey]

It's a nauseating design... and it's a nearly decade-old design that has been barely updated since the casino sweepstakes (perhaps the announcement of a giant television screen for Penguins games is a new wrinkle). There's a companion article in the Trib detailing how the Penguins are inspired by Columbus, Ohio's Arena District... which is a mid-90s vision of urban development.

[BrianTH]

That's an old rendering and also I think designed specifically to appeal to people concerned about the development blocking off Downtown, so I am not too worried by that rendering per se.

But that article does make me puke in general. The thesis is that small market teams need these lucrative side deals to stay competitive. But then the Penguins admit the team is doing great financially as it stands, and that it actually doesn't need the revenues from this side deal for the team.

So the real thesis should be that this side deal turned out to be pure extortion--the public handed out very valuable development rights to rich guys who just want to get even richer, all because we were afraid of losing the team to some other suckers willing to bribe them even more.

Oh well. Good luck getting that article published, since the local papers are among the chief beneficiaries of the major league sports scam.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

There's a companion article in the Trib detailing how the Penguins are inspired by Columbus, Ohio's Arena District... which is a mid-90s vision of urban development.

Yeah, that article bothered me more than the rendering. We should be thinking at least Verizon Center in DC, not Columbus.

[themaguffin]

There's a companion article in the Trib detailing how the Penguins are inspired by Columbus, Ohio's Arena District... which is a mid-90s vision of urban development.

I actually don't think that the Arena District is bad per se and I think it works for Columbus. I don't think the scale works for this location (same issue as the rendering for the most part).

Here's a frustrating part though - it's prime land and land that could accommodate something of a nice scale that still wouldn't be massive...

They could plot a nice modern upscale hotel (think of the some of the W's out there in size and design) along with a similar size office tower and at least one apartment or condo tower of similar size. We're talking 20ish stories on the western fringe of the land... far enough away to preserve precious views from Crawford Square and still allow for smaller development in between.

[Minivan Werner]

The development around Dallas' American Airlines Center is more what the Penguins & city should be aiming for.

[BrianTH]

So back here we had a little discussion about a potential land swap on Mt Washington:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?p=6628812#post6628812

Now the church has announced a $3M fundraising goal for their new parish center (or "bingo hall" as some would have it):

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/ne...y-of-the-mount-plans-3m-campaign-to.html

And here is a rendering:



I think it looks pretty nice, and if that stain glass tower lit up, it could look particularly cool from Downtown at night. But that is just an artist's rendering, and in any event I know some will continue to prefer leaving the land vacant, hoping that a different resolution to local NIMBYism will become possible in the future.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by Minivan Werner

The development around Dallas' American Airlines Center is more what the Penguins & city should be aiming for.

pics?

[BrianTH]

The ARC House redevelopment project at a key North Side location is also getting a $3M state grant:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...-grant-to-kick-off-20m-arc.html?page=all

The project is centered around the restoration of what was most recently known as the former ARC House building, a halfway house for recovering alcoholics that closed years ago, leaving empty a 20,000-square-foot historic former bank in which it operated. With the new funding from the state, a team lead by North Side-based October Development and assisted by the North Side Leadership Conference expects to push forward with a project to build a new 120-room hotel, a 300-space parking garage and a 36-unit apartment building on a stretch of East Ohio Street that is an active junction for nearby Interstate 279 and Route 28, a collection of roadways that generates 100,000 passing cars each day. . . . A core component of the project is a plan to restore the former Workingman's Savings Bank in what Fatla said will be a new restaurant and banquet facility.

Fatla said financing for the new development project is in place but still to be finalized; he declined to divulge other funding sources except for the North Side Community Development Fund, a subsidiary of the North Side Leadership Conference. . . . Fatla indicated the North Side project, which has been in the planning stages for nearly five years, also will have other development partners which he declined to name until all the agreements are finalized. The hotel will be new a Comfort Inn by Choice Hotels, with the hotel brand working to implement a new urban model used elsewhere that will be the first in the region here.

Sounds pretty cool!

Pictures of the bank building:







Location:

https://goo.gl/maps/j0MVZ

Getting a big investment on that side of I-579 would be pretty huge.

[Minivan Werner]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

pics?

Here's a nice look from street view. The actual arena is the red brick structure peaking through the two glass buildings. The tall building is a W hotel.

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7892148,...3m4!1e1!3m2!1se1LKx-ZVQMjeyw6jcaDDvg!2e0

[eschaton]

Regarding the ARC House hotel, it looks like October Development or its principals own almost the entire block already. They own the building next to ARC House, then a huge swathe of vacant lots, the Caskey Limited Building, and then all the vacant lots up until the Staiger building. So the block will go from being mostly vacant lots to 85% full. What a big difference that will make in terms of the street feel!

I am pretty sure that October development will demolish the Caskey Limited building, and probably the other smaller-scale one as well, given they won't integrate well with their site plans. That said, they've been unusually good at historic preservation for a local developer, so maybe I'll be surprised.

[AaronPGH]

Nice project, it sounds like! Maybe the next step could be some attempt at bridging the "gap" between this area and the East Ohio business district.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Minivan Werner

Here's a nice look from street view. The actual arena is the red brick structure peaking through the two glass buildings. The tall building is a W hotel.

The tall buildings are OK, but otherwise what I am seeing at Google is not that exciting--not very walkable, mostly parking, and so on. But maybe that is just a first phase sort of thing.

Just to show my own cards, here is the Verizon Center in DC:

https://goo.gl/maps/mJeEo

Some representative pictures (although of course you would not need to apply DC's height maximums, so this is more a minimum vision than a maximum in terms of height):





By the way, note the cool facade preservation in the second pic. That is the sort of thing we should be insisting on at the Playhouse site (and we should have required it with PNC Tower too).

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I am pretty sure that October development will demolish the Caskey Limited building, and probably the other smaller-scale one as well, given they won't integrate well with their site plans. That said, they've been unusually good at historic preservation for a local developer, so maybe I'll be surprised.

I'm pretty sure the buildings are toast, but the facades have some cool decorative work, and I would love to see them saved (ala the DC pic I just linked, in fact).

[Evergrey]

Agreed, BrianTh... I much prefer the DC example. The Dallas example has some cool looking towers... but the overall urbanism is too spread out to be applicable to Pittsburgh.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

It's a nauseating design... and it's a nearly decade-old design that has been barely updated since the casino sweepstakes (perhaps the announcement of a giant television screen for Penguins games is a new wrinkle). There's a companion article in the Trib detailing how the Penguins are inspired by Columbus, Ohio's Arena District... which is a mid-90s vision of urban development.

I actually like the arena district in Columbus. The arena district + the short north + the highway cap are all pretty decent and one of Columbus' best neighborhoods. Maybe this district will look ok when it's done; It's hard to say at this point.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Regarding the ARC House hotel, it looks like October Development or its principals own almost the entire block already. They own the building next to ARC House, then a huge swathe of vacant lots, the Caskey Limited Building, and then all the vacant lots up until the Staiger building. So the block will go from being mostly vacant lots to 85% full. What a big difference that will make in terms of the street feel!

I am pretty sure that October development will demolish the Caskey Limited building, and probably the other smaller-scale one as well, given they won't integrate well with their site plans. That said, they've been unusually good at historic preservation for a local developer, so maybe I'll be surprised.

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

Nice project, it sounds like! Maybe the next step could be some attempt at bridging the "gap" between this area and the East Ohio business district.

Me and Evergrey were just talking about this building on Saturday. I would love to see this area get some MUCH needed investment.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

The tall buildings are OK, but otherwise what I am seeing at Google is not that exciting--not very walkable, mostly parking, and so on. But maybe that is just a first phase sort of thing.

Just to show my own cards, here is the Verizon Center in DC:

https://goo.gl/maps/mJeEo

Some representative pictures (although of course you would not need to apply DC's height maximums, so this is more a minimum vision than a maximum in terms of height):





By the way, note the cool facade preservation in the second pic. That is the sort of thing we should be insisting on at the Playhouse site (and we should have required it with PNC Tower too).

Yeah, that looks gorgeous of course but unfortunately that size and quality design is worlds away for a city the size of Pittsburgh. At least in the US. In Europe, that would be standard for a city our size.