PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by 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

All good news. Now, if the Wilkinsburg school district is combined into Pittsburgh or i don't know, Penn Hills or something and the crazy property taxes come down, then you will see the area experience true change.

[mikebarbaro]

Update on the former Macy's site redevelopment downtown. Of course it's a great idea but I'm not sure it would work. Pittsburgh suburbs have seen this concept fail before. I'm hoping the concept would work in the city center.

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/dev...-former-Macy-s-site/stories/201610260119

[daviderik]

I tend to agree, They would have to draw from areas other than downtown residents to make it profitable.
I seem to remember the developer wanting to put in underground parking? If so and they make it large enough for both hotel guests and Apt residents including visitors,
It could be a real attraction for visitors. I would defiantly take out of town friends and family when we explore downtown.

[eschaton]

Took a look at the latest zoning commission agenda. Two items of note which haven't been discussed before:

1. A proposal to convert this former church in the South Side into a 14-unit apartment building.

2. Some sort of brewery is going in on Penn Avenue here. Pittsburgh is having a real renaissance in terms of microbreweries lately. For a long time the zone between Friendship and Mathilda has pretty much dead - a mixture of run down houses and vacant commercial storefronts - possibly due to the "dead edge" effect of the cemeteries. But now there is Apteka and potentially this new brewery. Not to mention the new mini-apartment building which is finishing up construction on the corner of Edmond. This is great for an area I was seriously worried would continue to become overflow parking for the Children's Hospital.

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by mikebarbaro

Update on the former Macy's site redevelopment downtown. Of course it's a great idea but I'm not sure it would work. Pittsburgh suburbs have seen this concept fail before. I'm hoping the concept would work in the city center.

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/dev...-former-Macy-s-site/stories/201610260119

The commenters on the PG site never fail to be stone stupid.

[photoLith]

It's always ignorant old suburban yinzers or people who never come to the city except for a football game that live in Butler County, etc that comment on there.

Anyways, that development plan for the Macy's sounds like a failure in the making and a development plan straight out of the mid 90s.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by mikebarbaro

Update on the former Macy's site redevelopment downtown. Of course it's a great idea but I'm not sure it would work. Pittsburgh suburbs have seen this concept fail before. I'm hoping the concept would work in the city center.

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/dev...-former-Macy-s-site/stories/201610260119

The idea worked more or less in Cleveland, but downtown Cleveland is much different from downtown Pittsburgh. It has its sports venues and casino right within Downtown, and doesn't really have nightlife competition from outlying residential areas like Pittsburgh.

[GeneW]

I would love to have a mainstream movie theater within walking/subway distance from the lower Northside. I was hoping that the Cultural Trust project to turn the Bally's (Gateway Theater) back into a movie theater but that seems to be stalled. There have been 29 different movie theaters downtown over the past 110 years including possibly the first one ever, it's sad that there's only the Harris now.

[Minivan Werner]

It sounds like something that'd draw students (Point Park mainly, but certainly within walking distance of Duquesne) as well as young professionals letting off some steam after work. Not sure that'd be enough, though. But I'd certainly check it out.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Minivan Werner

It sounds like something that'd draw students (Point Park mainly, but certainly within walking distance of Duquesne) as well as young professionals letting off some steam after work. Not sure that'd be enough, though. But I'd certainly check it out.

The more I think about it, the more I think it would have been a better concept for a new-construction building on the North Shore.

[dfiler]

Originally Posted by eschaton

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.

I live in hamnet place according to county assessments. Quite honestly the area to the east of the busway is about as rundown as is physically possible. There are a few rehabbed building in a sea of rotting, collapsing and abandoned structures. That's precisely why the borough has one of he highest property tax rates in the country.

As mentioned by Austinlee, the key to Wilkinsburg's revival is lowered property taxes resulting from merged school districts. Another solution would be school funding reform at the state level.

As a Wilkinsburg homeowner, I wish it were otherwise. But it isn't... yet. Recent development near the busway is encouraging but the neighborhood is still quite certainly a getto.

[BrianTH]

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.

It has been a stable and moderately successful commercial district for a while, but it could really take off and become "the next East Liberty" at some point.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

All good news. Now, if the Wilkinsburg school district is combined into Pittsburgh or i don't know, Penn Hills or something and the crazy property taxes come down, then you will see the area experience true change.

They are now sending their 6-12 students to Westinghouse. That wasn't the ideal deal but it beats the status quo.

Wilkinsburg could really use another reassessment, but they've got some abatement programs in place which are helping a bit.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by mikebarbaro

Pittsburgh suburbs have seen this concept fail before. I'm hoping the concept would work in the city center.

My understanding is one of the reasons this has worked in similar sorts of locations in other cities is it can be a popular venue for after-work events--birthday parties, happy hours, going away parties, and so forth.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Wilkinsburg could really use another reassessment, but they've got some abatement programs in place which are helping a bit.

I'm not sure how a reassessment would help. I mean, I'm guessing they would find the relative property values of the stable/improving parts of Wilkinsburg has increased when compared to the falling apart sections. This would result in even higher property taxes in the nice neighborhoods, further limiting improvement.

[Private D]

Station Square apartment project expected to start in summer

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/dev...-to-start-in-summer/stories/201610270093

[anotherpghdave]

Anybody know what's going on with the Holiday Inn construction on Ft. Pitt Blvd? I've been watching it from my office window and nothing has happened for awhile. The elevator shaft has been up for months, but they only have two floors of steel installed. I think I saw a cherry picker in there a few days ago, but all construction activity seems to have stopped.

[photoLith]

^
Yeah it's very strange, the site has pretty much looked the same since July and they seemed to have just stopped everything.

[Don't Be That Guy]

Originally Posted by anotherpghdave

Anybody know what's going on with the Holiday Inn construction on Ft. Pitt Blvd? I've been watching it from my office window and nothing has happened for awhile. The elevator shaft has been up for months, but they only have two floors of steel installed. I think I saw a cherry picker in there a few days ago, but all construction activity seems to have stopped.

I believe that the project's zoning approval was appealed by a nearby property owner.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Private Dick

Station Square apartment project expected to start in summer

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/dev...-to-start-in-summer/stories/201610270093

Let's hope it turns out decent. That is a very important piece of riverfront land.