PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[Evergrey]

http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourfo...more/8139314-74/hara-crookston-aspinwall

'Riverfront 47' would transform O'Hara scrap yard



By Tawnya Panizzi
Tuesday, April 14, 2015, 2:02 p.m.
Updated 1 hour ago

O'Hara council is throwing its support behind a development that would change the face of the Lower Valley.

Aspinwall resident Susan Crookston's “Riverfront 47” would see about a mile and a half of Allegheny River shoreline transformed from a scrap yard to homes, hotels and nightlife.

“My goal is to create something world-class,” said Crookston, the leading force behind the adjoining Aspinwall Riverfront Park.

In all, the targeted property extends through Aspinwall, O'Hara and Sharpsburg. Owned by New York-based Blue Tee Corp., the land currently houses the scrap-processing yard Azcon.

Crookston has an option on the site but declined to reveal the cost.

She is seeking a premier developer, Crookston said, to build something that benefits the entire region. That's why she's looking for support from O'Hara, Aspinwall and Sharpsburg officials before the project launches.

“I want to give developers an assurance that the communities are working together and that this is something everyone wants,” she said.

O'Hara council members were expected to sign a formal agreement this week showing their intention to support the project.

“I don't think any of us wants what's there,” township manager Julie Jakubec said.

O'Hara Councilwoman Allison Garcia said she would abstain because her family owns property near the riverfront and stands to benefit from the overhaul.

...

[eschaton]

I completely forgot O'Hara owned a portion of the riverfront down there. If we lived in a sane world, the redeveloped portion of O'Hara would incorporate into Aspinwall, but we know there's not a snowball's chance in hell of that happening.

[Austinlee]

There has been SO much new development along the Oakmont riverfront. You can really see the extent of it as you drive along the road across the river in Verona. Sounds like they are trying to finish up developing the remaining riverfront land for the Fox Chapel crowd.

[DKNewYork]

Originally Posted by eschaton

CMU doesn't show ownership of the building on the map. Looking at the Allegheny County Assessor's site though, CMU is indeed the owner. So presumably when the time is right they'll be able to kick QED back, and basically own the entire block (save for Central Catholic's campus).

Ha! I never really believed what I had been told. Good to know. I believe that the southern end of the WQED property abuts the land that is being developed as the Tepper Quad. The QED building was designed by the same CMU arkie prof who designed Wean Hall, but I would not miss it if it were torn down and the land redeveloped. As for the Christian Brothers, they aren't going anywhere.

[photoLith]

So, Ive been kinda dating this girl who lives in North Braddock and shes on the city council or whatever they call it there. Anyways, there are 310 some odd houses that are abandoned in North Braddock and they want to tear them all down. She thinks as does the mayor that the only way to revitalize the neighborhood is by tearing down each and every house. I tell her all the time that that is a terrible idea and that North Braddock will start to look like McKeesport, there will be one house left on the block while the rest turns into urban prarie. She says they want to replace all the houses with urban farms and I told her that there is no where that there is enough people interested to keep that many urban farms going. They will destroy the historic integrity of the neighborhood and turn it into a place that nobody will want to revitalize because everything will be gone. I want to get Preservation Pittsburgh or PHLF involved because the neighborhoods government thinking is quite regressive and not with the times. I cant change her mind and what they will do is just destroy North Braddock. I tell her all the time that Wilkinsburg isnt tearing down most of their abandoned properties and instead they have an abandoned home tour where they get interested buyers to restore the houses, which is happening, slowly but surely.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by photoLith

So, Ive been kinda dating this girl who lives in North Braddock and shes on the city council or whatever they call it there. Anyways, there are 310 some odd houses that are abandoned in North Braddock and they want to tear them all down. She thinks as does the mayor that the only way to revitalize the neighborhood is by tearing down each and every house. I tell her all the time that that is a terrible idea and that North Braddock will start to look like McKeesport, there will be one house left on the block while the rest turns into urban prarie. She says they want to replace all the houses with urban farms and I told her that there is no where that there is enough people interested to keep that many urban farms going. They will destroy the historic integrity of the neighborhood and turn it into a place that nobody will want to revitalize because everything will be gone. I want to get Preservation Pittsburgh or PHLF involved because the neighborhoods government thinking is quite regressive and not with the times. I cant change her mind and what they will do is just destroy North Braddock. I tell her all the time that Wilkinsburg isnt tearing down most of their abandoned properties and instead they have an abandoned home tour where they get interested buyers to restore the houses, which is happening, slowly but surely.

To be honest, I don't think North Braddock has a prayer whatever they do. Transit service is cruddy out there. There's nothing resembling a business district - not even the tattered remnants of it like in Braddock proper. The housing stock in North Braddock is pretty ho-hum from what I've seen. Crime is pretty high too - higher than Braddock these days. You can do better - even on a budget - dozens of other places in the metro.

North Braddock was never built to be part of the city. It was built to house workers in the Mon Valley. Those jobs have evaporated, for the most part. Pittsburgh's resurgence will not help places like North Braddock, because the two were only tenuously connected to begin with.

[Evergrey]

North Braddock is a weird borough... with two distinct halves separated by a golf course in the middle. There's the industrial mill town half... and then the half along Rt 30 that's more mid-century suburbia (which is where I assume photoLith's girlfriend is from... that half would likely love to see the older half adjacent to Braddock bulldozed).

But I agree with eschaton... increasingly I believe the continued decline of places like North Braddock, McKeesport, Monesson, Donora, etc. to be inexorable. There may be some cool individual buildings... libraries, schools, etc... but ultimately these places were designed very poorly... with the only objective to serve the factory housed within the municipality.

Combined with the Pittsburgh's topographically/logistical challenges... these communities that are only tenuously connected to the urban core demographically/economically/geographically will enjoy limited-to-no impact from the core region's resurgence.

[eschaton]

An interesting article about a potential relocation of one of the Strip District's suppliers into the old Schaeffer school in Crafton Heights.

To me, this is sort of emblematic of some of the changes Pittsburgh is going through. The Strip is becoming less of an attractive place for industrial or business service type employers, which need to look to relocate to more remote portions of the metro.

Regardless, it seems like a win-win to me, if they can get it through zoning. The building Pittsburgh Spice is relocating from is remuddled, but in a great location, and could be restored to something beautiful. And Crafton Heights would benefit from more mixed-use. Just down the street from the school, there's a small business district which looks entirely vacant. This might be just the thing to bring some life back to it.

[photoLith]

Then do you guys think that places like Larimer, wilkinsburg, home wood have a chance of coming back?

[themaguffin]

Then do you guys think that places like Larimer, wilkinsburg, home wood have a chance of coming back?

Those places are not in the Mon Valley and have much better access to spillover growth etc.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by photoLith

Then do you guys think that places like Larimer, wilkinsburg, home wood have a chance of coming back?

Of course... totally different situation for those centrally located east end communities.

[Wiz Khalifa]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I completely forgot O'Hara owned a portion of the riverfront down there. If we lived in a sane world, the redeveloped portion of O'Hara would incorporate into Aspinwall, but we know there's not a snowball's chance in hell of that happening.

Looking at google maps, the biggest obstacle for this development's integration into the surrounding communities appears to be the elevated railroad tracks separating them from the scrap yard site.

[xchris125x]

Outdoor Rooftop Restaurant Biergarten to Open at Hotel Monaco in May

An 88-seat restaurant, Biergarten will open May 15 on the 9th floor rooftop of the Kimpton's Hotel Monaco Downtown, with a menu of German street food, and international beer selection and a view.

"It's a beer geek's destination," said executive chef of The Commoner, Dennis Marron. At Biergarten, there will be no Sierra Nevada or Iron City Light. Instead, it will offer 16 draughts and 50 to 60 types of bottles or cans. German brews such as Spaten Optimator and Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier will be on the menu, along with Belgian ales, sours and lambics and French ciders. Biergarten will also sell beer by the growler.

There's no kitchen, but like a biergarten in Germany's capital city of Berlin, there will be carts serving homemade pretzels with mustard, bratwurst and currywurst. Visitors can grab seats at communal tables or high-top tables, as well as gather for a game of corn hole, garden chess and a super-sized Jenga or Connect Four.

The 248-room Hotel Monaco in the former Reed Smith building, between Sixth Avenue and Strawberry Way, opened in late January to much fanfare, since the property from the San Francisco-based Kimpton is among the first of a handful of boutique hotels opening in Pittsburgh. In East Liberty, the Hotel Indigo is set to open this summer, while the Ace Hotel is scheduled to open in late 2015; Distrikt Hotel and Forbes Hotel, both Downtown, are in the works for 2016.

Hotel Monaco hosted its official opening gala on April 9, with decor and attire inspired by the styles of 1903, the year the James Reed building was completed.

The marquee restaurant helmed by Mr. Marron, the Commoner features tavern fare such as scotch deviled eggs, a cheddar board or a hearty green salad among first courses and a steak and ale pie, lamb shank or brick chicken roasted in the wood-fired oven among main dishes.

Biergarten will open, weather permitting, at 4 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and at noon on Saturday and Sunday. For next year, the hotel is looking into an awning or another means that would allow it to remain open during inclement weather.

http://www.post-gazette.com/life/dining/...k&utm_campaign=echobox&utm_medium=social

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by photoLith

Then do you guys think that places like Larimer, wilkinsburg, home wood have a chance of coming back?

Depends upon what you mean by "coming back."

Larimer is certainly being reconstructed in a big way right now. I think it is functioning more as a dumping ground for people displaced from East Liberty and elsewhere in the East End than anything, but there's no doubt with the current construction going on in the area, the population should be higher in 2020 than 2010.

Wilkinsburg is a fairly large borough. Several areas of it (Regent Square, Whitney Park, Greater Park Place) are socially stable and gentrifying. On the other side of the borough, areas like Blackridge and Beacon Hill, although arguably in slight decline, are still intact and largely safe neighborhoods. Then there's areas like Kelly West and Hamnett Place which are clearly transitional - and seem to be getting better. This map is six years old, but I think it's still largely accurate.



Overall I expect the areas closer to the City to continue to improve - slowly - while the areas further away will continue to decline.

Homewood seems hopeless now, but it has a lot going for it in terms of location (busway access, in East End, etc.) I am guessing it will not see substantive reinvestment until the rest of the East End built out and more expensive, but at some point it will become "the final frontier."

[JVC]

so much discussion about braddock and so far no mention of kevin sousa's superior motors and the $500K+ worth of donations that project has received

[PITairport]

"Skanska, a Swedish construction company that ranks as one of the world’s largest, is opening a Pittsburgh office.

Sources familiar with the plan say Skanska has leased an office of about 8,000 square feet at 11 Stanwix in downtown Pittsburgh as it ramps up establishing a presence in southwestern Pennsylvania"

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...rgest-contractor-opening-pittsburgh.html

[photoLith]

Don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet but at the base of PPG Place around Market Square they are finally developing it into restaurants so that will help enliven that part of Market Square a ton.

[Gilamonster]

It might be this:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...-to-open-new-upscale-greek.html?page=all

[Brentsters]

Originally Posted by xchris125x

Outdoor Rooftop Restaurant Biergarten to Open at Hotel Monaco in May

Looks like that P4 thing is having an event there. Sweet views.



https://twitter.com/danielgilman



https://twitter.com/billpeduto

[BrianTH]

I love that spot for a public rooftop space. Obviously there is an inherent appeal to being really high up looking down at the City, but there is a more subtle but nonetheless also compelling effect to being nestled among higher buildings.