PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[Evergrey]

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/bl...to-employ-140-in-new-strip-district.html

Robert Bosch to employ 140 in new Strip District offices

Dec 21, 2015, 11:32am EST

Robert Bosch LLC, the German technology giant, confirmed it will open a new facility at 3 Crossings, the mixed-use development by downtown-based Oxford Development Co. in the Strip District.

The company announced Monday that it will open a 51,667-square-foot technology center where its research and technology center and its Akustica subsidiary will both operate.

Bosch said it will open in the new facility in July 2016, nearly doubling the size of its current office at the SouthSide Works and join other newcomers to 3 Crossings such as Apple, Rycon Construction Corp. and the law firm Burns White LLC.

...

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2...ite-officially-open/stories/201512210147

Flyover ramp from Rankin Bridge to Carrie Furnace site officially open

December 21, 2015 11:45 AM

By Ed Blazina / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Allegheny County officials cut the ribbon this morning for a $14 million flyover ramp that will provide access to the Carrie Furnace site, opening more than 90 acres of riverfront land for redevelopment in Rankin, Swissvale and Pittsburgh.

The ramp over twin sets of active railroad tracks is considered the last piece to a 10-year effort to prepare the site along the Monongahela River. The county has spent more than $31 million to acquire the land, install roads and utilities and pour dirt to bring the site above the floodplain.

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald called the flat riverbank "a prime site" for office, light industrial and housing development.

...

[BobMcKelvin]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2...ite-officially-open/stories/201512210147

I am not sure why the PG has two different stories on this, but this one is a little more in depth than you posted and they casually tossed in an interesting tidbit about a potential future Busway extension:

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/east/2...Carrie-Furnace-site/stories/201512210012

"Once the nearby Kenmawr Bridge in Rankin is replaced in 2017, the busway could be extended, said Mr. Hurley, chairman of the Port Authority board."

[Evergrey]

http://publicsource.org/investigations/what-s-store-for-pittsburgh-s-downtown#.Vng5EErR_cs

What’s in store for Pittsburgh’s downtown?

Famous urban design firm doing survey, making recommendations, has done remakes from Times Square to Melbourne.

By Eric Holmberg | PublicSource | Dec. 20, 2015

Public space in downtown Pittsburgh could be connected like never before.

More bike lanes are a near certainty. More benches and signs could invite city dwellers and visitors to linger and guide you to your next downtown location.

Alleyways could change into destinations for a walk with friends, or a latte.

Gehl Studio, the U.S. arm of well-known Danish urban research and design firm Gehl Architects, is working on a report that measures how people use downtown's public spaces and major streets.

That data will serve as the basis for Gehl’s recommendations in January. The city can then use the recommendations to experiment with changes to downtown in 2016.

"What the mayor and the [Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership] and the foundations decided to do was basically to create a sandbox and treat downtown as an urban laboratory,” said Sean Luther, executive director of Envision Downtown, a public-private partnership between Mayor Bill Peduto’s office and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. “So that's where these fast-deployment, temporary, projects will come into play over the next year.”

But, as the 2011 urban planning documentary “Urbanized” said, cities will always be places of struggle for power, position and influence. Gehl’s recommendations will tug at existing tensions between motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians. Space annexed by one mode of transportation will likely be missed by the others.

The antagonism surrounding the Penn Avenue bike lane is an example of criticism that grows out of change.

Gehl Architects has a known philosophy that can be studied and applied to Pittsburgh, even before its recommendations are released.

Its founder, Danish architect Jan Gehl, has always emphasized urban design for the individual, not the car.

They were behind the transformation of Times Square as a pedestrian area; studied the increase of urban life in Copenhagen, Denmark, as portions of the city center became accessible only to pedestrians; and have performed public space and public life studies in cities around the world.


...

[Evergrey]

http://triblive.com/aande/architecture/9614020-74/strada-firm-pittsburgh

Pittsburgh's Strada stands tall as a transformative architectural firm



Dennis Marsico
The old Reed Smith office building at Sixth Avenue and William Penn Place, Downtown, was redesigned into the Hotal Monaco by Pittsburgh architectural firm Strada.

By John Conti
Saturday, Dec. 19, 2015, 5:08 p.m.

There's nobody in town who's done as much — or as well — at designing the rehabilitation of old buildings in Pittsburgh as Strada, a medium-size Downtown architectural firm.

The firm has successfully planned some of the city's highest-profile renovations in recent years — such as transforming the old Reed Smith office building at Sixth Avenue and William Penn Place into the elegant new Hotel Monaco, restoring the historic interior of the 1871 Dollar Savings Bank on Fourth Avenue, and converting vacant floors in the old Nabisco factory on Penn Avenue in East Liberty into the new Google offices at Bakery Square.

Strada also has taken on critically important design work for the current restoration and rehabilitation of yet another Pittsburgh landmark — the 30-story, 1953 Alcoa Building, a classic mid-century modern building that is known for its architecture the world over. This Downtown building is becoming a mixed-use office and apartment building with 12 floors of office space and 240 new residential apartments.

Strada also is working on turning the former Salvation Army headquarters building at the corner of Grant Street and the Boulevard of the Allies into a boutique hotel. This 10-story red-brick building with Gothic Revival touches once housed the Evangeline Residence for Young Women as well as other Salvation Army facilities. And it is finalizing the plans for turning the old Federal Reserve Branch Bank on Grant Street into — you guessed it — another boutique hotel.

...

[JVC]

is it possible local real estate prices have gotten ahead of themselves?

realtor.com image


google street view

[BrianTH]

The development of the Carrie Furnace site may take a while--and I would prefer not to rush it if that means lower-density development--but ultimately it could prove huge for those nearby distressed communities, particularly if combined with an East Busway extension. In fact, that would probably cause benefits to flow westward as well--to Wilkinsburg and Homewood, for example.

[BrianTH]

Downtown has a lot of very cool alleys--I will deliberately walk them sometimes because it almost feels like a hidden, older city interleaved with the modern city. It would be great if they could be activated more.

[JVC]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Downtown has a lot of very cool alleys--I will deliberately walk them sometimes because it almost feels like a hidden, older city interleaved with the modern city. It would be great if they could be activated more.

as opposed to east liberty where alleys are handed over to developers to make private parking garages and private "courtyards"

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Downtown has a lot of very cool alleys--I will deliberately walk them sometimes because it almost feels like a hidden, older city interleaved with the modern city. It would be great if they could be activated more.

Agreed!

[WillyC]

Originally Posted by JVC

is it possible local real estate prices have gotten ahead of themselves?

realtor.com image


google street view

Lawrenceville has gotten out of control. There was a house listed for $180k that was in shitty condition. I was dealing with the children of some old owners that had passed away. The only bathroom was in the basement except for the 2nd commode in a HALLWAY on the 2nd floor. In October, I offered them $40k cash cause it really just needed to be torn down as it would need at least $100k to make it livable. Needless to say, they said I was crazy and that they felt it was undervalued and really should be asking $200k. I eventually got a message in late November saying they'd take $100k cash. Last I saw they had dropped the price down to $162k.

Worse, this is spreading to Morningside now. I gave up on a house because the owner wanted over $210k. All of the comparables were in the $175-$185k range, but he was sure he will eventually get his $210+ and evidently wasn't under the gun to unload the house.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by WillyC

Lawrenceville has gotten out of control. There was a house listed for $180k that was in shitty condition. I was dealing with the children of some old owners that had passed away. The only bathroom was in the basement except for the 2nd commode in a HALLWAY on the 2nd floor. In October, I offered them $40k cash cause it really just needed to be torn down as it would need at least $100k to make it livable. Needless to say, they said I was crazy and that they felt it was undervalued and really should be asking $200k. I eventually got a message in late November saying they'd take $100k cash. Last I saw they had dropped the price down to $162k.

Worse, this is spreading to Morningside now. I gave up on a house because the owner wanted over $210k. All of the comparables were in the $175-$185k range, but he was sure he will eventually get his $210+ and evidently wasn't under the gun to unload the house.

Lawrenceville prices have surely skyrocketed. But keep in mind these prices shot up from a pretty low starting point - 30-50k a few years ago.
I have been in multiple houses in Sewickley that were listed for 300-400k that needed either down to the studs renovations or torn down and they always sell. They then need at least 200-500k in renovations and are then worth over a million so it still makes financial sense.
So Lawrenceville is not the highwater mark even in the Pittsburgh metro for high housing prices.



EDIT: As an example, this was one address I remembered off the top of my head. I showed this house in 2009. It was nearly a tear down and listed for 450k. It sold for 255k, I heard that the owner put around 500k into the renovation and sold it 2 years later in 2011 for $1.1m. This is not uncommon at all for that area.



Sales history:
http://www2.county.allegheny.pa.us/RealE...i=851&SearchParcel=&pin=0507L00070000000

[JVC]

house price indexes in cleveland, philadelphia and the nation as a whole are only now getting close to pre-financial crisis levels

the financial crisis had no effect on our market, and the pittsburgh house price index is now at all time highs



total quarterly wages for all three cities are trending steadily higher



so why is pittsburgh's housing market hotter than cleveland and philly?

most likely because this city has been receiving a tremendous amount of glowing national publicity which has caused real estate speculators to target this market

publicity such as "Zagat: Pittsburgh restaurant scene is No. 1"
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2...ace-to-stick-a-fork/stories/201512160127

[WillyC]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Lawrenceville prices have surely skyrocketed. But keep in mind these prices shot up from a pretty low starting point - 30-50k a few years ago.

I'm totally ok with someone wanting $200,000+ for a Lawrenceville home they paid $30-50k for and then spent over $100-150k remodeling. They put the work into it. It's fresh and new.

My problem is that every tom, dick, and harry finally noticed those young men who had the dumpster parked in the street for a few months got $200K+ for the house they put their sweat in. Now they think it's worth the same price without having put ANY work into their dump of a house. The children wanting $180k for a shit hole in a neighborhood surrounded by shit holes blew my brain circuits. I mean if it was Sewickley, I could understand, cause you are surrounded by nice houses, but most of Lawrenceville is still nothing but dumps.

I am getting ready to start what I hope will be a big family, but I find myself refusing to get caught up in the bubble of the East End. The idea of living in the suburbs just makes my skin crawl. The wife brought up moving back to Singapore or Bangkok because she wants to live somewhere with real mass transit in the city. Coupled with my refusal as a banker to get caught in the East End bubble, it may just happen.

[Austinlee]

Amazing photo came across my Facebook feed.



"Pittsburghesque" by Seldon I. Davis (1941)

(From the Carnegie Museum of Art)

https://www.facebook.com/OddPittsburgh/?fref=photo

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by WillyC

I'm totally ok with someone wanting $200,000+ for a Lawrenceville home they paid $30-50k for and then spent over $100-150k remodeling. They put the work into it. It's fresh and new.

My problem is that every tom, dick, and harry finally noticed those young men who had the dumpster parked in the street for a few months got $200K+ for the house they put their sweat in. Now they think it's worth the same price without having put ANY work into their dump of a house. The children wanting $180k for a shit hole in a neighborhood surrounded by shit holes blew my brain circuits. I mean if it was Sewickley, I could understand, cause you are surrounded by nice houses, but most of Lawrenceville is still nothing but dumps.

I am getting ready to start what I hope will be a big family, but I find myself refusing to get caught up in the bubble of the East End. The idea of living in the suburbs just makes my skin crawl. The wife brought up moving back to Singapore or Bangkok because she wants to live somewhere with real mass transit in the city. Coupled with my refusal as a banker to get caught in the East End bubble, it may just happen.

I hear you and I totally agree with everything you said. Have you considered Garfield? Crime rates have plummeted in the last 7+ years and the houses are pretty darn cheap. The new Garfield business district is starting to shape up pretty nicely too. Still has a ways to go though, IMO.

http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/dian...at-housed-criminals/stories/201503220034

[JVC]

more local real estate data (includes single and multi-family units)

[themaguffin]

Fluffy lists are not what is driving Pittsburgh's economy. The fact is that there are more fundamental differences between Pittsburgh and Cleveland right now and other cities too.

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by WillyC

I am getting ready to start what I hope will be a big family, but I find myself refusing to get caught up in the bubble of the East End. The idea of living in the suburbs just makes my skin crawl. The wife brought up moving back to Singapore or Bangkok because she wants to live somewhere with real mass transit in the city. Coupled with my refusal as a banker to get caught in the East End bubble, it may just happen.

[Star Wars] Come to the North Side [/Star Wars]

[JVC]

Originally Posted by themaguffin

Fluffy lists are not what is driving Pittsburgh's economy. The fact is that there are more fundamental differences between Pittsburgh and Cleveland right now and other cities too.

would you care to list them because something isn't adding up here
all these lists mention how pittsburgh has affordable housing but people who live here know that is no longer the case