PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

It's also a highly visible symbol of Pittsburgh for all the travelers coming in and out of the east coast on I-376E.

I've also pointed it out to people I am driving in from the airport to our place in Regent Square. It will never be a model of contemporary urban design, but filling it out and adding residential will definitely help tell the basic story of Pittsburgh transforming itself through brownfield redevelopment.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

I took a couple pictures at the Pittsburgh Technology Center last week. The sign is dated as March 2014.
I personally am looking forward to seeing the center built out so that it is at optimum efficiency.

It looks like there will be room for 6 more buildings to go in along with a couple more parking garages. This will be a pretty awesome silicon valleyesque campus when compelted.




And this building is supposed to open 1/16.

Here is a reminder of the remaining lot layout at the PTC I took in October.

[BrianTH]

Here is the revised site map:

http://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/ura-files/Parcel_Plan_8-7-14.pdf



Noted it is dated July 2014, rather than March 2014 like the sign, and it was eventually linked in the Revised December 2014 RFP:

http://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/ura-files/Revised_PTC_Draft_Final_121614.pdf

The big change is combining Parcel 3 and eliminating the garage. Not that I am complaining in this case, but I wonder if this is one of those situations where Walnut lobbied for the change in advance of the RFP.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I've also pointed it out to people I am driving in from the airport to our place in Regent Square. It will never be a model of contemporary urban design, but filling it out and adding residential will definitely help tell the basic story of Pittsburgh transforming itself through brownfield redevelopment.

And that's fine IMO. It's a little sliver of land between a 6 lane highway and a river. It is its own little microcosm but as you mentioned in a previous post it will have bike & pedestrian access to downtown, the strip and Almono.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Here is the revised site map:

http://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/ura-files/Parcel_Plan_8-7-14.pdf



Noted it is dated July 2014, rather than March 2014 like the sign, and it was eventually linked in the Revised December 2014 RFP:

http://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/ura-files/Revised_PTC_Draft_Final_121614.pdf

The big change is combining Parcel 3 and eliminating the garage. Not that I am complaining in this case, but I wonder if this is one of those situations where Walnut lobbied for the change in advance of the RFP.

So that 4.04 acres will now be residential buildings. The riverfront parcel at the top right is the new 3 story "urban - flex" building about to be UC so that only leaves 3 parcels left to be developed. 8a, 8b, and 4b.

It's filling up!

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

And that's fine IMO. It's a little sliver of land between a 6 lane highway and a river. It is its own little microcosm but as you mentioned in a previous post it will have bike & pedestrian access to downtown, the strip and Almono.

I also think it is worth remembering this was one of the very first such projects (in fact it is SP-1), so some allowances have to be made for the thinking of the time.

At this point, the only thing that really bothers me is the lack of a public riverfront trail.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

It's filling up!

Indeed. And visually, I think adding a non-parking-structure to the second layer back from the river is going to be huge in terms of making it read much more dense/urban.

Edit: Although I should note I think those were just the parcels made available in this particular RFP phase. Ultimately the SP Master Plan includes building sites between Parcel 3 and the garage to the west, in the space south of the western part of Parcel 3, and in the surface lots on either side of the Hot Metal Bridge. That's good news because with this moving to a mixed-used space I think there could be even more interest.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I also think it is worth remembering this was one of the very first such projects (in fact it is SP-1), so some allowances have to be made for the thinking of the time.

At this point, the only thing that really bothers me is the lack of a public riverfront trail.

Yeah, what's up with that?

[Evergrey]

Much of the prime real estate in Pittsburgh consists of "little slivers" squeezed between rivers and highways due to our unique topography. These little slivers should always be maximized with high-intensity development.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Yeah, what's up with that?

No clue, really, other than the planning all started way back when the URA bought it in 1983, with groundbreaking in 1993:

http://www.cmu.edu/steinbrenner/brownfie...urgh%20technology%20center%20-%20LTV.pdf

That was well before developing the riverfronts as public amenities had taken off. For example, Riverlife (originally the Riverlife Task Force) wasn't even talked about until 1999, and wasn't actually founded until 2001:

http://www.riverlifepgh.org/about-us/history/

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Much of the prime real estate in Pittsburgh consists of "little slivers" squeezed between rivers and highways due to our unique topography. These little slivers should always be maximized with high-intensity development.

I'm not disagreeing with that conclusion, but it is also true that the PTC is unusually narrow and pinched off at the ends even for Pittsburgh. The only major area I can think of that is actually worse is the South Shore past the Fort Pitt Bridge, and that has languished (although may be on the verge of a renaissance with the new hotel proposal). Station Square probably counts as a tie, but it has also had it struggles (although again hopefully that is coming to an end), and it was helped by the fact it had a bridge straight to Downtown and a T Station and the Incline. Otherwise areas like the North Shore, Strip, South Side, Waterfront/Homestead, and even ALMONO are all more spread out and have better accessibility in at least some sections.

That doesn't change the fact that if we were doing the PTC on a blank slate today, I would expect a number of significant changes to the plan. But with enough buildings packed in there I still think it will count as a reasonable, albeit not optimal, use of that land.

Edit: By the way, if there is one area where we have f'ed up enough to justify a serious starting over at some point, I'd suggest it would be The Waterfront. We probably won't even think about it until the ALMONO and Carrie Furnace sites are developed, but at that point I am hoping at least large portions of the strip mall are redeveloped, maybe with a new transportation plan as well.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Much of the prime real estate in Pittsburgh consists of "little slivers" squeezed between rivers and highways due to our unique topography. These little slivers should always be maximized with high-intensity development.

I just looked at the old historic maps, and it seems like there was never anything we'd call a neighborhood in the zone of the PTC. There did used to be a small residential neighborhood on the other side of what's now the Birmingham Bridge, however. Pennsylvania Tube Works wiped it out by around 1900.

It sorta makes sense that a neighborhood was never built up here, because by the time Pittsburgh's urban envelope pushed east into this portion of Oakland, the railways and steel were really picking up steam (no pun intended) meaning industry could snap up what was effectively greenfield property at that time.

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

This really came out of the blue. I can't wait to see PTC built out. It is now very accessible to the increasing number of amenities at SS Works.

It's also a highly visible symbol of Pittsburgh for all the travelers coming in and out of the east coast on I-376E.

My older East Coast family members are amazed by the tranformation. Many of them are old enough to remember the opening of the Squirrel Hill tunnel. The previous view with the steel mills was amazing though.

[Evergrey]

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...eveloping-8-unit-cobble-housecondos.html

Mendelssohn developing 8-unit Cobble House Condos in Lawrenceville

Feb 11, 2015, 1:36pm EST




Another sign of a condo comeback in Pittsburgh is underway in Lawrenceville.

Brian Mendelssohn and his Botero Development are building out a former warehouse property made of cobblestone into what will be marketed as the Cobble House Condos, an eight-unit project at 260 42nd St. in Lawrenceville.

Mendelssohn said he originally planned to redevelop the 8,000-square-foot building into apartments but sees opportunities to provide amenities a buyer might seek in a property with character.

"All the amenities of a large new construction project we actually have in an historic building," he said.

He added the cobblestones were taken from local roads by the company that originally built and used the building, the Davidson Road Co., which completed the building in the late 1930s and used it for years as a warehouse.

...

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

It sorta makes sense that a neighborhood was never built up here, because by the time Pittsburgh's urban envelope pushed east into this portion of Oakland, the railways and steel were really picking up steam (no pun intended) meaning industry could snap up what was effectively greenfield property at that time.

That's why so many of these areas are now development sites today. Rail and heavy industry dominated most of these flats along the rivers, and when all that went away Pittsburgh development went into a long dormant period precisely because the local economy was too dependent on all that.

But now here we are, with lots of opportunities to do some pretty great or at least extremely useful things--provided we don't let various entities with ulterior motives (and their captive politicians) screw it up.

[BrianTH]

This article about the Saks site makes the second (residential) phase sound like it is still pretty tentative, which is not good:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...ect-to-replace-former-saks.html?page=all

Millcraft presented a plan expected to be built in two phases, with the first including the garage, expected to be under construction in the upcoming weeks as Millcraft and McKnight formulate their strategy for the condo development. "We have a long way to go in phase two," said Chad Wheatley, vice president of construction for Millcraft. "We have a lot to figure out."

He said the company sees pent-up demand for condos in Pittsburgh, but that following through with the plan will depend on how well pre-sales of the units go and whether they'll sell enough to generate the financing. In a Pittsburgh market that hasn't seen any significant condo development in recent times, it's an approach that Wheatley acknowledged comes with a back-up plan of switching to apartments, if condos prove difficult to sell.

Maybe they are still committed to at least apartments if the condos fall through, but I wish I had more confidence that the Peduto Administration will hold them to their deal if they start pleading financing problems.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

But now here we are, with lots of opportunities to do some pretty great or at least extremely useful things--provided we don't let various entities with ulterior motives (and their captive politicians) screw it up.

Maybe we could transform the PTC into the Point Park University student boating center.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

This article about the Saks site makes the second (residential) phase sound like it is still pretty tentative, which is not good:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...ect-to-replace-former-saks.html?page=all

I wish I had more confidence that the Peduto Administration will hold them to a deal.

At the very least, this monstrous parking garage should be a nice complement to the Mellon Square parking garage across the street. Smithfield will become the 'parking mecca' of Downtown.

This is why we need more 'New York City hip & cool' developers coming to Pittsburgh... because our local development community —.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

This is why we need more 'New York City hip & cool' developers coming to Pittsburgh... because our local development community —.

Unfortunately, so far their preference often seems to be buying up historic properties rather than building new ones, probably because for them it feels like they are doing it out of petty cash.

[photoLith]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...eveloping-8-unit-cobble-housecondos.html

Wow that will be awesome. But whats with that bike rider? Looks like hes going to go crashing through the window lol. -