PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[BrianTH]

We probably won't know until the 2020 Census what is really going on with the City's total population. For development purposes, however, what matters is there is a growing population of younger adults (replacing the older population from the pre-Steel Bust days which is gradually moving away to retirement areas or passing away). That should keep up demand for new apartments and such.

[Private Dick]

I think all cities in PA aside from Philadelphia and Allentown officially lost population. Not unexpected.

[Private Dick]

^ well maybe not 'officially'

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

By the way, the other day I deliberately walked from Federal at North to Downtown in as straight a path as I could manage, just to sort of make mental notes about what was bad about that and what I thought could be improved. Obviously the asphalt plaza and mall as they stand are a huge barrier, and this plan looks like a big improvement if not exactly what I would have wanted.

But there were a lot of other problems too. One obvious one is those crappy triangle intersections at N Commons and S Commons. Those have got to go.

I also thought the path from N Commons down to Buhl Park could be much better:



The way this is set up right now is strange and I think discourages exploration. Imagine if that lawn space on the left (behind the dude on the phone) was another path, with the trees next to the existing sidewalk as a sort of median strip. That new path could actually be laid out as a bike lane, in fact. If you did that, I think suddenly that would look like an inviting bike/ped boulevard.

That would also solve another subtle problem I noted, which is that there is an odd juncture when you get to Buhl Park/Ohio. The existing path dead-ends into a statute, and a new, different path offset to the right takes you to the plaza/mall area. It may not seem like a big deal, but if you get that far from N Commons, it again communicates you are entering private space if you continue to the south (and vice-versa, in fact, if you have arrived at Buhl Park from the south, east, or west, and are contemplating heading north):



But the new path I suggested above would more or less line up with that existing path into the plaza/mall area. Again, I would love to incorporate a bike path, but even without that it would do a lot to create continuity and invite the public along.

So roughly speaking, you could be looking at this:





Now I don't know anything about land rights or easements, but I am pretty sure this is all well within the footprint of the former Federal, and I don't really see that strip of grass serving much purpose as of now. So hopefully it is something everyone around could get on board with.

I love your idea for a wider and more intuitive trail system.

[BrianTH]

I almost hate to mention this, but the dynamic described in this article about Rugby selling the property it leased to ModCloth and Amazon at a huge profit suggests that there may be an undersupply of large light industrial properties in the core area, although the very last line suggests maybe some is waiting on the sidelines:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...zon-distribution-center-for-premium.html

Less than a year after it reeled in an e-commerce whale when it leased more than 200,000 square feet in Pittsburgh to Amazon, New Rochelle, N.Y.-based Rugby Realty Co. Inc. has sold the building for nearly four times what it paid for it.
. . .
In a region in which distribution centers of more than 400,000 square feet are rare, the most recent major transaction Oliva compared the 2250 Roswell Drive sale to was the sale in 2013 of the 410,000 square foot Turnpike Distribution Center in Beaver County for $20 million, or $48.70 per square foot. Ades said there was interest in the property from potential buyers from throughout the country. “Literally, we must have had many dozens of tours and many dozens of offers," he said. "It was a very competitive environment.”
. . .
Oliva said he expects the strong sale price for what he characterized as a Class B-quality building with lower ceilings will send a signal to the rest of the local industrial market. “People who may have been sitting on the fence about selling should have some confidence that there is an exit strategy and there’s investor interest in Pittsburgh," he said.

[BrianTH]

UPMC/St. Clair Hospital (Mt. Lebanon) has bought the shopping center across the street to use the land for future development:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/ne...spital-buys-nearby-land-for-4-4m-to.html

Location (North Wren is the street running west of the hospital intersecting with Bower Hill to the south):

https://www.google.com/maps/search/st+clair+hospital/@40.3772669,-80.0682536,525m/data=!3m1!1e3

Sign of the times for dated retail developments to be replaced with medical services, but hopefully this results in a net densification of use.

Meanwhile, Village Green has begun leasing for its Baum apartment building, with move-in to be ready in the fall, when it will then begin leasing its South Side apartments:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...starts-lease-up-at-morrow-park-city.html

And the PBT's quick work in snapping a photo and writing an article about Uber's experimental car has led to national and international press (not all completely accurate, I might note):

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...ngs-to-know-today-and-an-uber-scoop.html
http://time.com/3893531/uber-self-driving-car/
http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/22/uber-test-car-pittsburgh/
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/22/uber-self-driving-car-pittsburgh

Like the Google offices in Bakery Square, you can tell already that the marketing benefits to Pittsburgh of Uber's partnership with CMU are going to be very significant.

[Zachary R. English]

Minor correction:

Originally Posted by BrianTH

UPMC/St. Clair Hospital (Mt. Lebanon) has bought the shopping center across the street to use the land for future development.

St Clair Hospital is fully independent (one of only two hospitals in the Pittsburgh area. Ohio Valley is the other). It is not a UPMC-owned hospital and has made it very clear that it intends to keep it that way. They do have a jointly run cancer center at St Clair Hospital, however, which appears to be the google maps tag that shows on the map.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Zachary R. English

St Clair Hospital is fully independent (one of only two hospitals in the Pittsburgh area. Ohio Valley is the other). It is not a UPMC-owned hospital and has made it very clear that it intends to keep it that way. They do have a jointly run cancer center at St Clair Hospital, however, which appears to be the google maps tag that shows on the map.

Thanks! You are right that I got that from the Google Map.

[Austinlee]

Awesome view of the two new towers rising. And just in general...



Credit: Dave Dicello

[themaguffin]

what a great picture.

[BrianTH]

Fantastic. Funny to think there is nothing behind PNC Tower nearly as tall, which means this picture would not have been so nicely balanced before it.

[BrianTH]

Some more details on the thinking behind OneJet's new service from PIT:

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/8416213-74/onejet-pittsburgh-service#axzz3bF43pe4M

[BrianTH]

In Gentriburgh news . . .

Not sure on the rules regarding linking this, but a contributor to "another forum" has compiled some very interesting statistics and rankings on household income trends from 2010 to 2013. Specifically, for metro areas of at least 1 million in population, he looked at household income above versus below $75,000--to help calibrate, I think in 2013 median household income for the U.S. was around $52,000, and $75,000 would put you right at the edge of top 1/3rd.

Anyway, here is what he found:

Between 2010 and 2013 (the most recent year of income data available from the Census Bureau), Pittsburgh lost 30,496 households earning less than $75,000, which was more than any other major metropolitan area. That was shocking enough, but equally shocking was the fact that Pittsburgh gained 34,290 households earning $75,000 or more, which was the 13th-most of any major metropolitan area. Those 34,290 high-income households gained are more than Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland or Tampa gained in that same period of time.

Percentage-wise, Pittsburgh ranked 7th in growth of high-income households, behind only Charlotte, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Austin, Nashville and San Antonio. Also percentage-wise, Pittsburgh ranked 1st in growth of the share of high-income households. It grew its share of high-income households by 11.7% between 2010 and 2013, which was a higher rate than any other metropolitan area with at least 1,000,000 population. Only Oklahoma City joined it above 10%.

You have to be careful with things like percentage changes in shares, and some of this is going to be the same households changing their income. But nonetheless, big picture all this confirms what we have repeatedly noted--the composition of the population in the Pittsburgh area is changing far more rapidly than the total population numbers reveal, perhaps as rapidly as any major metro area in the country. And the overall trend is a rapid shift from older, less-educated, lower-income households to younger, better-educated, higher-income households. And it is the rapidly growing population in the second category that will continue to fuel the sorts of development patterns we have seen recently.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

In Gentriburgh news . . .

Not sure on the rules regarding linking this, but a contributor to "another forum" has compiled some very interesting statistics and rankings on household income trends from 2010 to 2013. Specifically, for metro areas of at least 1 million in population, he looked at household income above versus below $75,000--to help calibrate, I think in 2013 median household income for the U.S. was around $52,000, and $75,000 would put you right at the edge of top 1/3rd.

Anyway, here is what he found:



You have to be careful with things like percentage changes in shares, and some of this is going to be the same households changing their income. But nonetheless, big picture all this confirms what we have repeatedly noted--the composition of the population in the Pittsburgh area is changing far more rapidly than the total population numbers reveal, perhaps as rapidly as any major metro area in the country. And the overall trend is a rapid shift from older, less-educated, lower-income households to younger, better-educated, higher-income households. And it is the rapidly growing population in the second category that will continue to fuel the sorts of development patterns we have seen recently.

Interesting stuff.

[Private Dick]

Crappy iPhone pics, but I think this is a good view to envision the impact the 14-story Skyvue apartment building will have on the Oakland skyline. Not a ton of height, but it should be very noticeable.

You can faintly see the blue crane tower and white horizontal boom where the 550k sqft monstrosity will stand.

[PEORIA]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Awesome view of the two new towers rising. And just in general...



Credit: Dave Dicello

Originally Posted by themaguffin

what a great picture.

" AWESOME! "..... Now, that's ' a money shot ' .

[Brentsters]

Originally Posted by Private Dick

Crappy iPhone pics, but I think this is a good view to envision the impact the 14-story Skyvue apartment building will have on the Oakland skyline. Not a ton of height, but it should be very noticeable.

You can faintly see the blue crane tower and white horizontal boom where the 550k sqft monstrosity will stand.

And maybe another new neighbor.

http://southoaklandpgh.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/FORBES-AVENUE-APARTMENTS_150512.pdf

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Interesting stuff.

Interesting indeed...

[BrianTH]

Just idle musing, but this year I am going to have been in Pittsburgh more or less half my life (I was born in the fall of 1971, moved here in the fall of 1993). Things had already been changing for the better as of 2008 when I truly committed to staying here, but I also feel like the changes really started accelerating around then. So things are already quite different--but we are just getting started. 10-15 years from now, I think the transformation will be undenialbly radical.

But of course by that point, when I try to tell all the young whippersnappers what Pittsburgh was like 30+ years ago in the 1990s, to them it will be ancient history. Which is, all things considered, good.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Brentsters

And maybe another new neighbor.

I like it! It would definitely complement Skyvue, and has a nice mass to it.

Now if they could do something about that Arby's . . .