Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority Advances Plan To Fund East Liberty Improvements

Locator map with the East Liberty neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania highlighted. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority board is pushing ahead with a plan to divert a large portion of real estate and parking tax revenue from a host of projects in or near East Liberty to help fund road, pedestrian and other improvements in the area.

Board members will vote Thursday on a proposal to create an East Liberty Transit Revitalization Investment District in which 75 percent of the new real estate and parking tax revenue generated by development within half a mile of the East Liberty stop on the East Busway would be used for infrastructure improvements.

Also Thursday, the board is expected to vote on $500,000 in loans to help clear the way for Fifth Avenue Pub and Lofts, a proposed restaurant and apartment development across the street from Consol Energy Center. It would mark the first major private development to take place in that area since the arena opened in 2010.

The transit revitalization investment district in some ways works like a tax increment financing district, only it typically involves a broader area and is utilized for a host of projects, not just one.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/urban-redevelopment-authority-advances-plan-to-fund-east-liberty-improvements-686742/#ixzz2SlF96I2J

Developer Plans Apartments On First Avenue In Downtown Pittsburgh

A map of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with its neighborhoods labeled. For use primarily in the list of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For the past several years, developer Todd Palcic has made his living developing condos and apartment buildings in Downtown’s cultural district. Now he’s taking his talents across town.

Last week, Mr. Palcic completed the purchase of the former Graphic Arts building at 422 First Ave., with plans to convert the eight-story, red-brick structure into apartments.

“I think there’s a need for apartments on that side of town,” he said Thursday.

Mr. Palcic paid $800,000 for the building and another $350,000 for an adjacent lot, which will provide parking for those who eventually will be living in the building. CBRE was the broker in the sale.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/developer-plans-apartments-on-first-avenue-in-downtown-pittsburgh-682004/#ixzz2PVdnKyme

60 Projects Outlined By Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership

Several major developments in the Golden Triangle will get started or completed this year — part of a group of 60 projects in the pipeline totaling an estimated $2.2 billion in investment, according to the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.

Among the developments to get started this year is the Gardens at Market Square, a $95 million hotel, office and retail project to be built on Forbes Avenue near Market Square. Lucas Piatt, president and chief operating officer of Millcraft Investments, the developer, told those gathered for the PDP’s annual meeting this morning that Millcraft plans to break ground on the project in June.

The Gardens will feature 125,000 square feet of office space, 20,000 square feet of retail, a 335-car parking garage, and a 197-room Hilton Garden Inn. Burgatory, a hamburger haven, and Jackson’s Social Bar and Restaurant already have signed on as tenants, Mr. Piatt said.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/art-architecture/60-projects-outlined-by-pittsburgh-downtown-partnership-679960/#ixzz2O19WK1GS

Walkabout: Upper Lawrenceville Looks To Revitalize Without Losing Grit

Locator map with the Upper Lawrenceville neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania highlighted. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While so many neighborhoods are casting about to reinvent themselves as vibrant post-industrial places, denizens of Upper Lawrenceville want to tie a vibrant future to the industry that remains.

They began developing a new vision for the neighborhood, referred to by some residents as the 10th Ward, in a series of three meetings that Lawrenceville United and the Lawrenceville Corp. initiated last fall. With $15,000 from the Design Center, they hired Christine Mondor of evolve EA, a design firm in Friendship, to lead the sessions, with help from Chelsea Burket, a community strategist with Fourth Economy, a consulting firm on the North Shore.

The Ancient Order of Hibernians‘ hall on Carnegie Street was standing room only for each meeting. The process linked natives of the neighborhood, old and young, to relative newcomers, many of whom have found the last affordable part of Lawrenceville.

After a final meeting last week, they embarked with a new plan and strategies to enliven the neighborhood without sacrificing its authenticity.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/morning-file/walkabout-upper-lawrenceville-looks-to-revitalize-without-losing-grit-672447/#ixzz2JPx0UOeV

Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield Business District Is Flourishing

A map of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with its neighborhoods labeled. For use primarily in the list of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One evening last summer, Rachelle Timarac and a friend went to Bloomfield for pizza.  Other people were walking and hanging out at sidewalk tables on Liberty Avenue.

“There was electricity in the air, and I got a really good vibe,” she said, “but I saw so many vacant storefronts and couldn’t understand why.”

One in particular caught her eye — 4615 Liberty Ave., a former Dollar Tree that had been vacant for almost two years.  Five weeks ago, she opened GoldNGals, an antique jewelry store, there.

It is one of 14 new businesses that have opened in Bloomfield since 2011.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/bloomfield-business-district-is-flourishing-666718/#ixzz2FKdKUsYS

Smart Growth Conference In Pittsburgh Focuses On Transportation, Green Infrastructure And Urban Redevelopment Financing

A map of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with its neighborhoods labeled. For use primarily in the list of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This week’s 12th annual Southwestern Pennsylvania Smart Growth Conference will focus on three issues its organizers call “make or break” for the region: transportation funding, green infrastructure and urban redevelopment financing.

Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary Barry Schoch will be a featured speaker at the event, scheduled for 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown.

The General Assembly and Gov. Tom Corbett are expected to take up transportation funding in the coming session.  Funding cutbacks and shortfalls have caused a decline in road quality across the state and threaten to arrest progress in repairing structurally deficient bridges.

Public transit systems, including the Port Authority of Allegheny County, have struggled financially and been forced to raise fares and reduce service.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/transportation/smart-growth-conference-in-pittsburgh-focuses-on-transportation-infrastructure-665723/#ixzz2EfaBizzb

Pittsburgh’s Oakland Neighborhood Shaping ‘Monster’ Of Long-Term Vision Plan

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Long-term vision plans are becoming the norm for neighborhoods, but rarely do they cross as many borders and pack so much influence as the new “Oakland 2025: A vision for sustainable living and mobility.”

In neighborhoods as small as Larimer and the Central Northside, the process can take a year or more with diverse interests making consensus a challenge. Oakland 2025 could be the mother of all vision plans.

Guided by the Oakland Planning and Development Corp., the process bridged four neighborhoods and brought to the same table residents; design consultants; more than a dozen nonprofits — from Bike Pittsburgh to United Cerebral Palsy of Pittsburgh — business owners; three city councilmen and two state representatives; transportation experts; the Urban Redevelopment Authority; and institutions that include the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Carlow University, UPMC, the Allegheny County Health Department and Port Authority.

“It’s a monster,” said Wanda Wilson, executive director of the Oakland Planning and Development Corp. “I think the thing that’s going to help [with implementation] is that we have these partnerships in place — not that it’s going to be a piece of cake.”

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/oakland-shaping-monster-of-long-term-vision-plan-660703/#ixzz2BMy8HwUd

Gas Drilling Adds Fuel To Pittsburgh’s Resurgence

Pittsburgh, once known as America’s Steel City, is laying its Rustbelt heritage to rest by fostering growth in education and health services, while drawing strength from the booming natural-gas industry it keeps at a distance.

Drilling into Marcellus shale deposits is banned in Pittsburgh, yet hydraulic-fracturing, or fracking, operations in the countrysiSde nearby have helped bring in jobs and boost demand for office space in Pennsylvania’s second-biggest city.

“Like eds and meds, like steel once was in Pittsburgh, it would be the industry to grow and employ people and turn the economy around,” Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, 32, said of gas extraction. Nearby drilling can provide a “growth mechanism” the city can use to propel a rebound, he said. The city faced insolvency in late 2003, as the population and employment fell.

Fracking is driving wage, job and population growth, even after health concerns led the City Council to ban it, according to development officials. Wells Fargo & Co. economists recently called Pittsburgh a “logistical hub” for the industry. To fuel the boom, Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, is offering Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s biggest oil company, at least $1.65 billion in tax credits to build a gas-fed chemical plant nearby.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-pittsburgh-rebound-20120810,0,3805778.story

Project Offers Face-Lifts For Downtown Pittsburgh Facades

From one window, Alan Kashi can watch a 33-story glass skyscraper being built before his eyes. From another, he can drink in the elegant lines of Three PNC Plaza, the 23-story tower that opened a few years ago. He can walk a couple of doors from his property to a former five-and-dime store that harbors apartments, restaurants and retail.

Now it’s his turn to join the Downtown renaissance.

Mr. Kashi is restoring the storefronts, replacing windows and making other improvements to the buildings he manages at 254 and 256 Fifth Avenue and 445 Wood Street as part of a new program to help rejuvenate older buildings Downtown.

“We’re revitalizing Downtown. This is a very major corner, Fifth and Wood. And it’s going to really help a lot to do what is necessary to make Downtown what it should be,” he said.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/project-offers-face-lifts-for-downtown-facades-648419/?p=1

Downtown Pittsburgh Stretch Of Penn Avenue Flourishes

A map of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with its neighborhoods labeled. For use primarily in the list of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A two-block Downtown stretch of Penn Avenue is undergoing a mini-renaissance.

New stores are opening, at least three developers have plans to build more residential units, and one school just moved in and another is expanding — all in 800 and 900 blocks of Penn.

“It seems like all the little gaps are starting to get filled in now,” said John Valentine, executive director of the Pittsburgh Downtown Community Development Corp.

The two blocks near the David L. Lawrence Convention Center weren’t shabby by any stretch, not with a Courtyard by Marriott hotel, the Penn Garrison and several bars and restaurants anchoring the area.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/new-tenants-fill-gaps-on-penn-avenue-645419/#ixzz21Avqtakl