PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[BrianTH]

Despite housing-for-ownership prices remaining unusually inexpensive in Pittsburgh and rents in recent years increasing a lot more than housing prices, Pittsburgh seems to be fully participating in the new national shift of share from owning to renting:

http://triblive.com/business/headlines/8451358-74/housing-percent-affordable#axzz3bls7M5HW

Again, reason to believe the apartment building boom can continue more or less indefinitely.

[BrianTH]

Speaking of important national trends, hotels in the U.S. are having their best year ever:

http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Article/15971/Freitags-5-Annualized-occupancy-at-new-high

[Minivan Werner]

Someone brought up a few weeks back the above-ground utility poles in the Strip District and how unslightly they were. What neighborhoods in Pittsburgh have underground utility lines? I can only think of Oakland, Downtown, Station Square, Central East Liberty and Allegheny Center. Are there any plans in place of burying the lines in other neighborhoods like the Strip, Lawrenceville, South Side, etc? How do they decide that a neighborhood is 'worthy' of no longer having to see telephone polls obstructing views?

[DKNewYork]

Originally Posted by Minivan Werner

Someone brought up a few weeks back the above-ground utility poles in the Strip District and how unslightly they were. What neighborhoods in Pittsburgh have underground utility lines? I can only think of Oakland, Downtown, Station Square, Central East Liberty and Allegheny Center. Are there any plans in place of burying the lines in other neighborhoods like the Strip, Lawrenceville, South Side, etc? How do they decide that a neighborhood is 'worthy' of no longer having to see telephone polls obstructing views?

Also Schenley Farms.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Speaking of important national trends, hotels in the U.S. are having their best year ever:

http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Article/15971/Freitags-5-Annualized-occupancy-at-new-high

Apparently high occupancy means the worst cookie cutter architecture! And i am talking about this whole country; Not exclusive to Pgh at all.

[CF Lion]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Despite housing-for-ownership prices remaining unusually inexpensive in Pittsburgh and rents in recent years increasing a lot more than housing prices, Pittsburgh seems to be fully participating in the new national shift of share from owning to renting:

http://triblive.com/business/headlines/8451358-74/housing-percent-affordable#axzz3bls7M5HW

Again, reason to believe the apartment building boom can continue more or less indefinitely.

Interesting. A friend and I were discussing possible retirement locales the other day ... we're both about 15 years away from that. His view was that he'll sell his home and then use the proceeds to move to different cities every three years and simply rent each time, until the point when mobility becomes difficult. That way he can experience different locations and fully take in what each has to offer.

[Evergrey]

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...ee-former-heinz-building-to-be-sold.html

Three former Heinz building to be sold for redevelopment on North Side

Jun 1, 2015, 4:21pm EDT
Tim Schooley
Pittsburgh Business Times

Three buildings totaling 200,000 square feet that neighbor the Heinz Lofts are up for sale after being prepared for redevelopment.

The three properties, known as the annex building, the administration building and the research building, were originally part of H.J. Heinz Co.’s North Side operations before it sold off a number of business units that included the real estate to Del Monte Foods Co. more than 10 years ago.

The Pittsburgh office of CBRE is marketing the three former buildings once part of the larger Heinz complex for sale.

"They’re currently undergoing asbestos abatement and interior demolitions,” said Dan Sliger, a vice president in the Pittsburgh office of CBRE, who is representing the property along with colleague Gerry Dudley. “The properties will be sold abated...and ready for redevelopment."

Sliger characterized interest in the properties as strong and added a couple parties “are really looking closely at it.”

He expects the options for redevelopment could include keeping them as office buildings or converting them for residential or hotel use.

...

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...ee-former-heinz-building-to-be-sold.html

Wow, this is bigger news than you might realize. The Heinz complex is already such a gorgeous solid looking campus but then there's all these huge sites around it just BEGGING for redevelopment.

[BrianTH]

Google is also continuing to push hard on driverless cars, expecting a finished product by 2020:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...head-of-self-driving-cars-talks-the.html

Meanwhile, somewhat addressing a question we had been discussing previously: energy jobs are in fact contributing substantially to the growth in higher-paying jobs in the region. However, although these writeups suggest the top 6 such job fields are in energy, that is only if you look at growth in percentage terms. If you instead sort the list in gross terms, the top 6 job fields are actually not energy, and the top 4 really dwarf the energy fields:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...aying-jobs-have-grown-since-2010-in.html

But holding aside the exact details of the mix, the apparent growth in higher-paying jobs puts Pittsburgh high on the list:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...are-pittsburgh-ranks-high-in-living.html

CareerBuilder.com looked at the growth in jobs between 2010 and 2014 and found the Pittsburgh region was one of the 10 cities with the highest growth in so-called "living-wage jobs," positions that make enough to support a family of three, according to 2013 federal standards.

Nearly six in 10 new jobs (57.1 percent) in the region were in what paid above the cost of living, $15.59 an hour in 2013. Only seven other cities in the U.S. were ahead of Pittsburgh in the CareerBuilder.com study.

I don't know exactly how comprehensive or methodologically sound this study is, but this is just one of many data points supporting the same basic story (that the composition of the Pittsburgh population and economy is changing rapidly in ways that help explain the ongoing robust demand for certain forms of development).

[BrianTH]

I believe this is the cluster of former Heinz buildings up for sale--and I agree that is very big news:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pittsb...!1s0x8834f16f48068503:0x8df915a15aa21b34

[TBone7281]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...ee-former-heinz-building-to-be-sold.html

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Wow, this is bigger news than you might realize. The Heinz complex is already such a gorgeous solid looking campus but then there's all these huge sites around it just BEGGING for redevelopment.

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I believe this is the cluster of former Heinz buildings up for sale--and I agree that is very big news:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pittsb...!1s0x8834f16f48068503:0x8df915a15aa21b34

Those are indeed the buildings in question. The for sale sign has been up for a long time and the buildings are in worse shape than Street View shows. Honestly, I never bothered to stop and take a picture because, while it's a fairly large complex, it's also what I would consider an eyesore.

Nothing crazy... it isn't like there is structural damage or anything, you can just tell it hasn't been occupied for a number of years. Hopefully this renovation they are talking about will help things in that department quite a bit.

[BrianTH]

The older buildings are pretty cool, and the connecting bridges (or whatever you would call that one connection between the old buildings) are cool. The 50s-era building is not much of a looker, but on the plus side those are often excellent choices for residential or hotel conversions (ala the State Office Building). So I think with a lot of TLC that could be a pretty sweet complex of some kind.

[Evergrey]

glowrock has been calling for this for years...

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...ommute-smart-traffic-signals-coming.html

Rough morning commute? Smart traffic signals coming to Pittsburgh

Jun 2, 2015, 7:49am EDT
Justine Coyne
Pittsburgh Business Times

If you sat through too many red lights on your way into town this morning, you may see some relief this summer.
On Monday, Nashville-based TransCore announced it will begin integrating its smart traffic signal software at 130 intersections throughout Pittsburgh's downtown and North Side neighborhoods.

The company's TransSuite Traffic Management Software, which is designed to be integrated into the city's legacy traffic controls, is designed to reduce the city's need to manually control traffic during planned events, as well as provide Pittsburgh with enhanced management capabilities.

"It allows each intersection to communicate with each other on a per-second basis for engineers to monitor traffic and see in real time what each intersection is doing," said Michael Mauritz, senior vice president for TransCore. The software also works to issue commands on how it should be working in order to make sure the signals remain coordinated.

...

[BrianTH]

I wonder if that is competing with the CMU system being rolled out in the East End. May the smartest signals win! [This message brought to you by Skynet]

Anyway, interesting article on the Pittsburgh food truck scene and its desire for legislative changes:

http://www.nextpittsburgh.com/features/pittsburgh-food-truck-laws/

Right now it appears the current laws aren't being strictly enforced as a matter of policy, but obviously that sort of regulatory uncertainty discourages capital investment.

[Evergrey]

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...al-expected-to-join-major-apartment.html

Walnut Capital expected to join major apartment redevelopment plan in Lawrenceville

Jun 2, 2015, 12:34pm EDT Updated Jun 2, 2015, 1:55pm EDT
Tim Schooley
Pittsburgh Business Times



Alex Simakas plans to team with Walnut Capital Partners on a 191-unit apartment project as part of his Fort Willow Developers’ redevelopment of the nearly five-acre former Interlocking Deck industrial property in the Ninth Ward of Lawrenceville.

With a hearing on the project scheduled Thursday for the Pittsburgh Zoning Board of Adjustment, Simakas said he does not have a final agreement with Walnut Capital Partners but is working toward one to push forward with a project that would rank among Lawrenceville's largest residential development projects, if it's not the largest.

“Their track record is pretty straightforward,” said Simakas of Walnut Capital, which continues to actively develop various apartment projects in the city’s East End. “I’m happy to be working with them.”

Todd Reidbord, president and a principal of Walnut Capital Partners, confirmed that his firm is working toward an agreement with Fort Willow and expects to serve as property manager for the new development.

“We like the project,” he said, praising the project's location next to the National Robotics Engineering Center and the shops and restaurants on Butler Street. “We always say there’s always room for excellent projects in excellent locations. We just think Lawrenceville is hotter than it’s ever been.”

Working with a design by Strip District-based Rothschild Doyno Collaborative, Fort Willow will present a project larger in scale than Simakas was originally considering when he first publicly revealed his intentions to replace his longtime industrial property with a new development last November, a project then roughly estimated to be 130 to 150 units.

He expects to include a significant number of micro-apartments in the development in the range of 550 square feet to appeal to young renters.
The new project to be presented to the Pittsburgh ZBA is expected to include 191 apartments with 153 on-site parking spaces, along with bike parking.

...

[photoLith]

Good, hopefully that development will help clean out the lower part of Lville, its still kinda ghetto down there.

[Wave]

Also Murdoch Farms and some newer developments like Summerset at Nine Mile Run.

Utilities have typically been buried in any development since the 50's & 60's which postdates most of the city's development. All the areas you mention, where utilities have been placed underground, are areas with special circumstances. Usually extreme congestion (downtown, parts of oakland) or mass renovation of a neighborhood (East Liberty, Allegheny Center). I personally prefer underground utilities for aesthetic reasons though there are differing opinions on the other benefits. Older historical and congested neighborhoods IMHO should be first to get subterranean utilities but the cost can be prohibitive.

My vote would go to the Central & Flat parts of the North Side (Mexican War Streets, West & East Deutchtown, Allegheny West & Manchester etc.) The Mexican War Streets and surrounding areas are screaming for buried lines. It would greatly enhance the pedestrian experience, add environmental benefits, but mostly create an enormous aesthetic improvement.

In many dense neighborhoods, the tree canopy has difficulty co-existing with power lines & of course the power lines win out.

Originally Posted by Minivan Werner

Someone brought up a few weeks back the above-ground utility poles in the Strip District and how unslightly they were. What neighborhoods in Pittsburgh have underground utility lines? I can only think of Oakland, Downtown, Station Square, Central East Liberty and Allegheny Center. Are there any plans in place of burying the lines in other neighborhoods like the Strip, Lawrenceville, South Side, etc? How do they decide that a neighborhood is 'worthy' of no longer having to see telephone polls obstructing views?

[Johnland]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

The older buildings are pretty cool, and the connecting bridges (or whatever you would call that one connection between the old buildings) are cool. The 50s-era building is not much of a looker, but on the plus side those are often excellent choices for residential or hotel conversions (ala the State Office Building). So I think with a lot of TLC that could be a pretty sweet complex of some kind.

Is the Louis Kahn designed building part of this deal?

[BrianTH]

Working with a design by Strip District-based Rothschild Doyno Collaborative, Fort Willow will present a project larger in scale than Simakas was originally considering when he first publicly revealed his intentions to replace his longtime industrial property with a new development last November, a project then roughly estimated to be 130 to 150 units. He expects to include a significant number of micro-apartments in the development in the range of 550 square feet to appeal to young renters. The new project to be presented to the Pittsburgh ZBA is expected to include 191 apartments with 153 on-site parking spaces, along with bike parking.

And once again a development by private, for-profit entities is upscaling.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Johnland

Is the Louis Kahn designed building part of this deal?

Which one did he design? The (pretty awful looking) 1950s research building looks like a candidate, but I don't know.