PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[markson33]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

That seems right, although again small-to-medium office projects are finding tenants. It just seems like the rents required to finance an actual skyscraper are a bit too high for potential tenants at the moment.

Personally, this is part of why I am in no rush to develop the lower portion of the former Arena site, or other places large scale office towers could eventually go. I think good projects will be viable eventually, so I don't see the merit in trying to rush through subpar projects on prime land. And in the meantime, we can keep infilling the Strip, East Liberty, and so on.

This is correct, the rents are higher than most other options out there. The other issue is that developers need a significant lead tenant in order to get financing. You can't build a building like this with a 50,000 SF tenant (which is relatively large for our market). You need a 150,000 SF + tenant that is willing to pay above market rates. The end result is that its extremely difficult to do.

I don't expect the tower to be built in the near future if it is purely office. If its a hotel/office mix it could happen.

[Nitwit]

As an aside, does anyone think it would be worth having a stand alone "Lower Hill Development Thread" in the General Development forum?

[photoLith]

^
No, not enough going on at the moment and whatever happens on the Hill should stay in the Pittsburgh thread.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Related to my point above, I found this map that GTech put together of "unimproved" vacant lots from last year.



Now, this is not inclusive of all potential sites where mixed-income infill could go on the North Side. But most of what's left is city-owned land which has steep slopes, and was probably never built upon.

The conclusion I draw is the most likely places for the replacement of Allegheny Dwellings are in California-Kirkbride or Perry Hilltop. Or perhaps far northern Manchester or that large plot of land in southern Brighton Heights (IIRC, where a hospital used to be). There just aren't enough places left elsewhere unless Trek wanted to do scattered-site development, which they clearly do not.

California Kirkbride is a wasteland. It's 90% gone. Northwest Manchester is pretty bombed out too.
Even a surprising number of War Street empty lots I think a lot of these are hillside lots, no?
And what is that neighborhood just north of the Mexican War Streets? That's a lot of red.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Even a surprising number of War Street empty lots I think a lot of these are hillside lots, no?

There's still a lot of vacant lots in parts of the Central North Side which are between Saturn Way and Federal, and north of Jacksonia. There is some infill which is happening now building off of the Federal redevelopment - all of it market rate AFAIK.

Originally Posted by Austinlee

And what is that neighborhood just north of the Mexican War Streets? That's a lot of red.

If it's the cluster I think it is, you're looking at the vacant lots right along Brighton Avenue, along with Brighton Place in California-Kirkbride. Further north than this you get into the Charles Street Valley area, which is now almost totally obliterated.

[Wally G]

Big's design has a wow factor to it and i pray it gets built. Me and my architect friend was blown away by the design and she proposed had a similar design for the bakery square 2.0 project. I love the design because is so different than anything this city has already. So many card board box designs like the Consol Energy Center. The buildings have levels and green roofs which is a win. I hope this will force other architects around the city to be different than the norm. I am really excited for this design hope it gets done!

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Wally G

Big's design has a wow factor to it and i pray it gets built. Me and my architect friend was blown away by the design and she proposed had a similar design for the bakery square 2.0 project. I love the design because is so different than anything this city has already. So many card board box designs like the Consol Energy Center. The buildings have levels and green roofs which is a win. I hope this will force other architects around the city to be different than the norm. I am really excited for this design hope it gets done!

Local architects complain when large projects get designed by out of area firms but when you seek out world class architecture you get much more progressive designs.

[JVC]

New development in East Liberty leaves some residents feeling left out

http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/new-development-east-liberty-leaves-some-residents/npQgK/

it will be very interesting to see how things change in east liberty when eastside 3 officially opens,
especially with regard to the traffic situation on centre

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Local architects complain when large projects get designed by out of area firms but when you seek out world class architecture you get much more progressive designs.

Yeah, if they want to get projects they need to step it up.

BIG is promising this is not just innovative but actually affordable. That's what every firm needs to be doing--finding a way of bringing cool projects on a budget.

[Evergrey]

more details on the Oakland mid-rise now known as EMPIRE

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/dev...akland-for-students/stories/201511200211

Apartment, retail project proposed in Oakland for students

November 20, 2015 12:00 AM





By Mark Belko / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A New York development company is proposing an $85 million residential and retail project in Oakland designed to appeal mainly to students.

Dubbed the Empire, the 17-story development would be built on Centre Avenue between North Dithridge and North Craig streets. It would feature 326 apartment units, more than 400 parking spaces, and street level retail.

Park7 Group, a real estate development, construction and management company, is scheduled to brief the city planning commission on the proposal next week. If all goes according to plan, Park7 hopes to start the project next June and have it completed in two years.

Park7 has been assembling property at the location, which includes a parking lot and a handful of aging houses, for some time.

City Councilman Dan Gilman, who represents the area, said the housing will be primarily geared toward students but will be open to others as well. He said he has been working with Park7 on the development for two years and is very supportive of the proposal.

Mr. Gilman said he has been trying to redevelop the corner for the past decade. He called the area a “critical gateway” in Oakland, adding that it has been under utilized as a parking lot.

The current housing, he said, is old and poorly maintained. Park7 plans to demolish all of it to make way for the new development.

...

[BrianTH]

Still a bit bummed about the old houses, but otherwise the scale of that project is great for that area. The design is not ground-breaking, but it is Oakland-appropriate. I really appreciate these days when they break up the long facades in a way that echoes the older building configurations of the past (e.g., in the aerial shot, compare to the building across the street toward Schenley).

[Urbana]

There are details about the Empire project as well as a new hotel project on the Strip/Downtown border in the most recent planning presentation.

http://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/schedule65/presentation-65-711.pdf

[JVC]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

more details on the Oakland mid-rise now known as EMPIRE

more soviet architecture for a formerly capitalist, now communist country

don't think for a minute that the choice of this soviet style is accidental - architects know architectural history

[eschaton]

The birds-eye of The Empire makes it look like they are vacating a street in order to build the mega-tower, when in truth the alley on that block was partially vacated for expanded parking by some of the buildings further back some time ago.

Otherwise, I approve. I'm usually pro-preservationist, but there's really no reason why everything in North Oakland (Schenley Farms and the S Craig commercial corridor excepted) shouldn't be built up to at least midrise level. It's already the densest part of the city, and doubling down is good. It's just a shame how many of the older towers have such an awkward street level presence.

Edit: I note there is at least no corrugated metal siding on the Empire. Some metal paneling around the windows, but that's about it.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Urbana

There are details about the Empire project as well as a new hotel project on the Strip/Downtown border in the most recent planning presentation.

There's an amended plan for the Forbes Avenue Apartments at the end of the presentation as well. Looks like the unit count was reduced from 137 to 102. Basically the building was shrunk by 38 feet to comply with zoning. Seems to have had one story of parking, and two stories of apartments chopped off.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by JVC

New development in East Liberty leaves some residents feeling left out

http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/new-development-east-liberty-leaves-some-residents/npQgK/

I think the criticisms are a bit false honestly. In the last 15 years, there have been three major mixed-income developments - New Pennley Place, East Liberty Place North/South, and the Fairfield Apartments. I think at least some of the infill houses built on Mellon were for low-income families. The same may have been true for the houses built on N Euclid. That's before even considering rehabs and refurbishments (some of which created new low-income units, as some buildings were formerly abandoned). There's further new imided-income being built along East Liberty Boulevard right now. And between the phases of this in Larimer, along with the Larimer infill houses, a lot of new lower-income housing was added immediately adjacent to East Liberty.

[themaguffin]

I won't comment on the Trump AM radio bullshit troll comment above.

It's nice looking building that is appropriate for the area.

[JVC]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I think the criticisms are a bit false honestly. In the last 15 years, there have been three major mixed-income developments - New Pennley Place, East Liberty Place North/South, and the Fairfield Apartments. I think at least some of the infill houses built on Mellon were for low-income families. The same may have been true for the houses built on N Euclid. That's before even considering rehabs and refurbishments (some of which created new low-income units, as some buildings were formerly abandoned). There's further new imided-income being built along East Liberty Boulevard right now. And between the phases of this in Larimer, along with the Larimer infill houses, a lot of new lower-income housing was added immediately adjacent to East Liberty.

it's understandable that people feel left out, but things change, usually for the worse

does anyone have any idea when people can start moving into eastside 3?
the scale of that development makes the highland-wallace building look like a duplex

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I think the criticisms are a bit false honestly. In the last 15 years, there have been three major mixed-income developments - New Pennley Place, East Liberty Place North/South, and the Fairfield Apartments. I think at least some of the infill houses built on Mellon were for low-income families. The same may have been true for the houses built on N Euclid. That's before even considering rehabs and refurbishments (some of which created new low-income units, as some buildings were formerly abandoned). There's further new imided-income being built along East Liberty Boulevard right now. And between the phases of this in Larimer, along with the Larimer infill houses, a lot of new lower-income housing was added immediately adjacent to East Liberty.

To the extent I can figure out the well-founded part of the objection, it appears to be that perhaps the timing is such that units are sometimes being lost before they are replaced, and during that gap some long-term residents are being forced out of the neighborhood.

I do know that looking at total unit counts is misleading, because vacancy rates were often high in the older units so the actual occupied unit counts may not be down and in fact could be up. And in turn that means if some long-term residents are moving out, other new lower-income residents may be moving in, which is still good from a public policy perspective, and of course there is always going to be such churn even without changing the underlying units. And in fact I know that there are many efforts to help people manage the transition. But it is at least a real issue, and it would not surprise me if sometimes people were falling through the cracks despite those efforts.

[Minivan Werner]

To be truly 'soviet' it'd need to be set back about 60 feet from the street and it'd need AC units sticking out of every window. And it'd have to be one of 16 identical buildings in a row.