PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Interesting... as these are two national retailers that seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum.

They are both die-hard anti-union companies (like, far, far worse than even the normal level of anti-union activity for retailers), which is the primary reason I avoid them.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I'm pretty sure this picture is taken from Market Square. All the other buildings in the shot are gone - the foreground ones for PPG Place, and the one in the background is the old Wabash building, which was demolished for Gateway Center. The 1923 lot maps show a McCann's grocery in Market Square right where the three-story building on the left of the photo is.

That is all correct, although I believe the Wabash Terminal had been largely destroyed by fires and closed in the 1940s, before being demolished in the 1950s for Gateway.

[SWPA]

If I remember my history correctly, I think the Wabash terminal was in fact closed and the city wanted it for Gateway Center. But there was some to-do with the railroad or whoever owned the building at the time. Then there was a fire in the late 40s and it had to be torn down, which gave the city the green light for Gateway Center.

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by eschaton

They are both die-hard anti-union companies (like, far, far worse than even the normal level of anti-union activity for retailers), which is the primary reason I avoid them.

Yeah, I don't shop at Whole Foods because the owner, John Mackey, is such a Libertarian jerk.

[BrianTH]

Some key transactions in East Liberty:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...properties-could-face-redevelopment.html

An affiliate of LG Realty, the company that owns Penn Plaza, recently expanded its footprint by buying a property that includes a recently closed Monro Muffler Brake shop near the corner of Negley and Penn avenues on the border of East Liberty and Garfield. Transaction records indicate that an affiliate of LG Realty paid $1.05 million for the property.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Penn Plaza in the heart of East Liberty's business district, sources indicate that developer Tony Dolan and his Alphabet City Development Co. has the former Novum building at 5900 Penn Avenue under agreement. A notice is posted on the building for a Zoning Board of Adjustment hearing to use the property for retail and office, and seeks a special exception for off-site parking.
. . .
Jonathan Kamin, a lawyer who represented LG Realty, would only say “stay tuned” regarding the Monro property. The Monro property is across Penn Avenue from the former Babyland shop that LG Realty also owns and plans to redevelop into an AutoZone store. The new acquisition of the Monro property gives LG Realty control of three corners of the intersection at Penn and Negley avenues.

Hopefully they are reconsidering their plans for the Babyland site.

Edit: Oh, and the possible redevelopment of 5900 Penn is one reason why it is not too early to be thinking about an overall plan for that area around Beatty south of Penn. I do like that it is planned for office, for the reason stated previously (more office in Downtown East Liberty could support public spaces during the day/lunch period).

[eschaton]

Hopefully the city forces LG to build to very high urban standards. Between the three corners of Penn/Negley and the possible Mellon's Orchard redevelopment this has the potential of being more transformative than all of the stages of Eastside put together.

I do wonder if the purchase of the Novum building by Alphabet City will change their plans for the site at the corner of Penn and Centre. IMHO the Novum site is better for an office midrise, as it has a larger square footage and is a building lacking historical merit. If Alphabet City switched their planned office building to that site, it would leave open the Penn/Centre site for something more appropriate, like apartments. Hell, maybe I can dream and they could find a way to save the facade of the old Yen's Chinese building.

[Evergrey]

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/ne...gehl-studio-to-establish-priorities.html

City hires Gehl Studio to establish priorities for downtown mobility, livability

Oct 14, 2015, 12:19pm EDT Updated Oct 14, 2015, 1:49pm EDT

Envision Downtown has hired Gehl Studio to develop a Public Realm Action Plan for downtown Pittsburgh, Mayor Bill Peduto's office announced Wednesday.

The firm, which is the U.S.-based practice of Gehl Architects, will document how shared spaces are used downtown and set priority action items for improving mobility and livability to be undertaken by Envision Downtown in 2016.

Sean Luther, executive director of Envision Downtown, said the bulk of the firm's work is expected to cost about $150,000. Envision Downtown is a privately funded, public/private partnership between the Mayor’s Office and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, which was formed to accelerate Downtown’s economic growth and competitiveness. He said funding for the action plan comes from a variety of foundation partners, but he declined to name specific organizations.

...

[Evergrey]

Coincidentally, there's a thread discussing DC's urban Wal-Marts in the City Discussions sub-forum:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=219191

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Between the three corners of Penn/Negley and the possible Mellon's Orchard redevelopment this has the potential of being more transformative than all of the stages of Eastside put together.

No doubt connecting Downtown East Liberty to the Penn Avenue business district that really starts coming together west of Negley with more or less continuous, dense, urban-appropriate development would be huge.

I do wonder if the purchase of the Novum building by Alphabet City will change their plans for the site at the corner of Penn and Centre. IMHO the Novum site is better for an office midrise, as it has a larger square footage and is a building lacking historical merit. If Alphabet City switched their planned office building to that site, it would leave open the Penn/Centre site for something more appropriate, like apartments. Hell, maybe I can dream and they could find a way to save the facade of the old Yen's Chinese building.

I'd love for that facade to be saved too. That said, I do think more office in East Liberty is becoming a priority--doesn't have to be there specifically, but hopefully there will be multiple projects coming along.

[BrianTH]

Sounds like at a minimum, a lot of interesting information could come out of that Gehl project.

[BrianTH]

A "mini Target"/Target Express would be such a cool addition to Downtown.

That one in Rosslyn is right across from the grocery store I used when I lived in Rosslyn for a couple years.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

No doubt connecting Downtown East Liberty to the Penn Avenue business district that really starts coming together west of Negley with more or less continuous, dense, urban-appropriate development would be huge.

It seems worth noting that the Garfield Business district is really only continuous to Evaline. Beyond this you do have storefronts, but lots of gaps due to the two stands of rowhouses on the north side of Penn, parking lots, institutional buildings, etc. I expect there will be more infill along this strip as time passes, but if anything I expect that you'll instead see the area east of Aiken slowly being associated more with East Liberty than Garfield.

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I'd love for that facade to be saved too. That said, I do think more office in East Liberty is becoming a priority--doesn't have to be there specifically, but hopefully there will be multiple projects coming along.

I dunno. I simply think that from a transit perspective, building more apartments so close to the busway makes more sense than offices, given th location. Far more people will ride the EBA from East Liberty to Downtown or Oakland to work than would commute using the EBA (from where?) to East Liberty to work.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

It seems worth noting that the Garfield Business district is really only continuous to Evaline. Beyond this you do have storefronts, but lots of gaps due to the two stands of rowhouses on the north side of Penn, parking lots, institutional buildings, etc. I expect there will be more infill along this strip as time passes, but if anything I expect that you'll instead see the area east of Aiken slowly being associated more with East Liberty than Garfield.

Although I agree with all of that, to me, at least, there is always just enough on one side of the block or the other to keep some sort of minimal continuity going, whereas at Negley it feels like it suddenly breaks open. But as you note, hopefully good development up to the Negley intersection would inspire more infill further west as well.

I dunno. I simply think that from a transit perspective, building more apartments so close to the busway makes more sense than offices, given th location. Far more people will ride the EBA from East Liberty to Downtown or Oakland to work than would commute using the EBA (from where?) to East Liberty to work.

So I would first note that I think walking and biking commutes are important too, and adding more office to East Liberty would give more people living nearby an opportunity for that sort of commute.

I'd also note there are in fact a lot of communities that have decent transit links to East Liberty. Anywhere east of East Liberty on the EBA, for example, or any area which is served by one of the PXX routes, has a better transit link to East Liberty than Downtown or in fact Oakland. And there are a whole bunch more bus routes serving East Liberty (a majority of the 70s and 80s, I believe):

http://www.portauthority.org/paacmaps/images/SystemMap.jpg

It is true those people could all get to Downtown or Oakland eventually as well, but if you can save some people something like 15 minutes each way each day, plus in some cases avoid the cost of a transfer each way, that can add up to a lot of benefit and would likely increase ridership.

Further, as noted I think more office would support more amenities, which would encourage more residential as well.

Finally, I would assume East Liberty office would be a bit less expensive than Downtown or Oakland. So, that might draw some employers that would otherwise end up somewhere with less walking/biking/transit potential than East Liberty.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Although I agree with all of that, to me, at least, there is always just enough on one side of the block or the other to keep some sort of minimal continuity going, whereas at Negley it feels like it suddenly breaks open. But as you note, hopefully good development up to the Negley intersection would inspire more infill further west as well.

I do wonder what ever happened with that E Properties/Moss project which was supposed to go in next to the old Quiet Storm building. They demolished the two derelict buildings then sat on a vacant lot for what seems like years now. E Properties also owns the old Quiet Storm building now, maybe they are waiting for Spork to open up. Or perhaps they need to sell more of the McCleary Condos in Upper Lawrenceville (which haven't even begun construction AFAIK) before they have the capital to break ground.

[BrianTH]

Bird's eye view of the East End from the perspective of eastern communities like Wilkinsburg, Edgewood, and Swissvale:



Unless and until the Spine Line is finally built, transit access to East Liberty will remain notably superior.

Incidentally, some day I would also like to see Wilkinsburg attract some office projects.

Edit:

Almost every bus route in the eastern part of the PAT system which I have (very roughly) marked out here, plus the P7 from McKeesport (that tail down in the southwest), eventually funnels through Wilkinsburg:



East Liberty funnels even more but it is harder to draw--you've got routes from as far away as Ross (the P13) and Harrison Twp (the P10), but many other routes from those various areas follow different routes into the core.

[AaronPGH]

Someone told me that Wal-mart was squashed so hard a while ago that LG Realty had moved on to Costco. Clearly a better company (they pay their employees a living wage + benefits). But the hiring of that architect makes me wonder.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/ne...gehl-studio-to-establish-priorities.html

Sean Loother (forumer Tooluther (sp?) was interviewed on the news tonight in Mellon Square downtown. Haha, that guy is nice.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Bird's eye view of the East End from the perspective of eastern communities like Wilkinsburg, Edgewood, and Swissvale:

Sweet photo. You can click it, then click again for even larger size.

[photoLith]

I dont think this has been shared before but heres an updated plan by Trek for the Garden Block redevelopment, and it looks way better than the last proposal I saw.

http://www.alleghenycitycentral.org/wp-c...ng-Presentation-Garden-Theater-Block.pdf

[Dr. Avis]

Originally Posted by photoLith

Wow Hampton, like Fox Chapels second cousin whom nobody at the family reunion wants to associate with. You are so painfully obvious a troll. Please go back to hating urban living in the comments section of the Pittsburgh Post Gazettes facebook page or extolling the greatness of generic suburban living on city data. Thanks.

Yes that Hampton whose population is going up unlike the city, is incredibly safe, and has a very high median income. Plus I've never been to either of those sites but thanks for suggestions lol. Sorry for bringing a sense of reality of where most want to live.