PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by photoLith

Is all of that Larimer new development public housing? I hope not.

True "public housing" isn't built any longer, and it's rapidly being decommissioned pretty much everywhere in the country except NYC (where it's too expensive to knock down). Pittsburgh's Housing Authority, like elsewhere in the country, has moved away from directly owned low-income complexes, instead using HUD money now to build privately-managed mixed-income developments. In the case of Larimer, the low-income units being replaced were also privately owned, but they're adding market-rate housing to the mix, and destroying the mid-20th century apartments frees up new land for development.

There is an argument to be made that HUD money is better spent towards providing more Section 8 vouchers than these mixed-use developments. On the other hand, these sort of mixed-income developments tend to stabilize declining neighborhoods. Without them it's highly unlikely anything would be built in Pittsburgh's low income neighborhoods at all, and they'd probably have to decline to the point of literal urban prairie with all original structures vanishing before market-rate development would become a serious possibility.

[The Best Forumer]

Originally Posted by photoLith

Iphone pics I just took from the top of the Cathedral of Learning.

IMG_7004 by photolitherland, on Flickr

IMG_7003 by photolitherland, on Flickr

Beautiful... For some reason I didnt expect all the hills... I guess being from Houston it's something im not used to. Nice pics.

[eschaton]

FWIW, here's the proposed master plan for the new Riverfront 47 development which will redevelop the former scrapyard along the Allegheny River in Sharpsburg, Aspinwall, and O'Hara Township.

A few Aspinwall NIMBYs have been up in arms about some details of this project.

[AFW523]

Originally Posted by eschaton

FWIW, here's the proposed master plan for the new Riverfront 47 development which will redevelop the former scrapyard along the Allegheny River in Sharpsburg, Aspinwall, and O'Hara Township.

A few Aspinwall NIMBYs have been up in arms about some details of this project.

How dare they try to get something on the books that has the chance to be a legacy project. We should let the Allegheny River Valley neighborhoods rot like the Mon!

In all honesty, I do agree that a better solution probably needs drawn up than a Trans traffic impact study...Freeport road gets pretty boned. I don't know that adding a park is really going to have much impact on that, but if they are going to put that much time and effort into this, they might as well try to troubleshoot that artery while they are at it.

[dfiler]

That picture looking east from the cathedral of learning shows the new construction at CMU.

I hadn't realized how significant of a change that will be. It will extend eastward the dense urban feel of central Oakland. Ten years ago CMU did not loom over Forbes ave. Back then there was a drastic difference on Forbes between Pitt and CMU. This and the recently completed CMU buildings south of Forbes will continue that urban corridor.

In my opinion, this is development done right. The buildings are of the right scale. The streetwall is being continued. And the street itself is being reworked to be more inline with the neighborhood. I can't wait to see it be more pedestrian and cyclist friendly. It will be a drastic improvement to the surface parking lots and overly-wide, high speed urban-highway that existed before.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by dfiler

That picture looking east from the cathedral of learning shows the new construction at CMU.

I hadn't realized how significant of a change that will be. It will extend eastward the dense urban feel of central Oakland. Ten years ago CMU did not loom over Forbes ave. Back then there was a drastic difference on Forbes between Pitt and CMU. This and the recently completed CMU buildings south of Forbes will continue that urban corridor.

In my opinion, this is development done right. The buildings are of the right scale. The streetwall is being continued. And the street itself is being reworked to be more inline with the neighborhood. I can't wait to see it be more pedestrian and cyclist friendly. It will be a drastic improvement to the surface parking lots and overly-wide, high speed urban-highway that existed before.

Word. In 5-10 years the CMU-Pitt corridor is going to look and feel like the bonafide tech corridor that it already is. And much more pedestrian and bike friendly.

Oakland is amazing but it could be about 100% better if some of the slum parts were upgraded, more mixed use, multi story buildings filled in the gaps (think tech incubators & co-working spaces on the upper floors) and the streets were Complete Streets that functioned perfectly for all modes of transportation.

[eschaton]

The URA has found the final bit of public financing which is believed to be needed for the produce terminal development to go forward.

Also, the plans for a hotel at Rivers Casino are continuing, but appear deadlocked at the moment. The casino wants a paper street vacated before development begins, but the city doesn't want to vacate the paper street until something is presented to the Planning Commission. The article also notes that Rivers Casino is demolishing a vacant warehouse on the back side of the property. No definitive plans yet, but I do wonder if they're hoping to capitalize on the planned Chateau Landing development.

Edit: Also the latest zoning report has one interesting item. It looks like a developer is putting in for zoning variances for multi-family structures at the corner of Broad and Larimer Avenue in East Liberty. This can only be the expected redevelopment of East Liberty Gardens. No unit count listed, but at least the developers are asking for relatively small setbacks and a reduction in parking minimums. It's a shame there isn't a snowball's chance in hell the nearby Enright Court development could be razed and redeveloped too, but it has condo ownership, so they're going to stay where they are in perpetuity.

Edit 2: New HRC presentation up too. Not much of note, but a new formal garden is being proposed next to Heinz Chapel. In addition, an old church in Manchester is slated to be converted into apartments.

[chucka]

This will add to the Forbes streetface and allow the adjacent CVS parcel to be redeveloped.

Proposed Office Building at Forbes and Coltart

CVS, their tenant on the southeast corner, would relocate into the first floor of the new building. Office space tenants would fill the additional six stories. They plan to meet LEED Silver standards, which would grant them a density bonus.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by eschaton

The URA has found the final bit of public financing which is believed to be needed for the produce terminal development to go forward.

I'm feeling very hopeful that this awesome, one of a kind building is going to be something special.

[Austinlee]

I thought this was an interesting graphic to visualize the vacancies in One Oxford Center.

One Oxford's new owner raises bar (and rents) downtown
Oct 21, 2016, 4:00am EDT

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/ne...ords-new-owner-raises-bar-and-rents.html

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by chucka

Interesting. It looks like they plan to break up the facade a bit, effectively making it seem like two skinny buildings rather than one large one. Between that and the "Arby's Tower" the block will have a totally different feel by 2018.

It seems they'll do fine on parking. The parcel is within the 50% commercial parking reduction area, and in addition to the CVS lot they also own three smaller lots on the other side of Iroquois Way which could be reconfigured to provide more parking. Of course, as the article notes, the ultimate fate of the Murdoch Building (built in 1928) is also in question, although frankly it's not that distinguished, and given the changing scale of the Forbes corridor, it wouldn't be the worst thing if it were demoed for a later project.

Coltart Street is one of the only homeowner-occupant dominated streets in Oakland though. If there's anywhere that NIMBYs could screw with a project, it would be here.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

I'm feeling very hopeful that this awesome, one of a kind building is going to be something special.

Knock on wood!

[BrianTH]

I like the garden plan for Heinz Chapel. That has always felt to me like an awkward dead space.

[DKNewYork]

FNB is opening a call center in the D L Clark building, adding another 100 employees. This will bring the company's Pittsburgh employee count to 400 in 120K sq feet of office space. Article on Biz Times web site is behind paywall but this is from Yahoo Finance.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/f-n-b-corporation-expands-130000428.html

Another merger or two and FNB will be shopping for more space, probably across the river downtown.

[eschaton]

I was looking over the city's building permits, and noticed that a demolition/foundation permit is now in the works for the Forbes Avenue address set to be the new "Arby's Apartments." It will be nice to get another crane going in Oakland again.

[daviderik]

I was with Iron and Glass Bank a few years back. They took that over. Then I went with Parkvale savings and they took that over as well. I'm going to open an account with PNC and see if these bastards are serious.

[Minivan Werner]

I think we should start calling that corner of Oakland the Arby's District.

[Private D]

Originally Posted by Minivan Werner

I think we should start calling that corner of Oakland the Arby's District.

Can't wait until the Beef 'n Cheddar Tower at Curly Fry Place rises in the District

[dfiler]

Some changes coming to Wilkinsburg!

Wood street will be converted to two way traffic. And Ross ave is getting a bike lane between Ardmore blvd and the busway. The old train station is also being renovated. It's part of a state multimodal transportation fund grant.

I'm not holding my breath but it looks like the nice neighborhood might finally be making the jump to the other side of the busway.

More details in the Wilkinsburg Sun.
https://wilkinsburgsun.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/wilksunnovweb.pdf

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by dfiler

I'm not holding my breath but it looks like the nice neighborhood might finally be making the jump to the other side of the busway.

Not to be pedantic, but there already are nice areas on the east side of the busway. Hamnett Place has been slowly gentrifying for awhile, with some amazing rehabs in that area. There are also still areas like Blackridge on the suburban fringe of Wilkinsburg which are still nice and stable, albeit experiencing some level of decline.