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  #2861  
Old Posted Oct 8, 2019, 3:53 PM
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pj3000 pj3000 is offline
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Pretty cool for Wilkinsburg...

Renovation of the train station and some other revitalization good news.

- When the $6.5 million construction project wraps up at the end of the year, the Beaux-Arts landmark will boast terrazzo and mosaic tile floors, polished stone pilasters and panels, a clock tower, all new utilities and restrooms, and 8,400 square feet of leasable space.

- The WCDC is actively seeking two tenants to occupy the renovated station building, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and located at the corner of Hay St. and Ross Ave.

- Evans says the spot is perfect for a high-end restaurant or a brewery. (The formerly dry borough updated its antiquated liquor laws in 2015.) Both floors will be move-in ready by early 2020.

- Funding for the project started with a $1 million contribution from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, followed by a grassroots capital campaign that raised more than $5 million — a sum that was $2 million over its initial goal. In just six months, the campaign received $175,000 in individual donations. An elderly man currently living in Arizona sends a $30 check every month to support his hometown.







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- Located less than three miles from the fully-leased Bakery Square and within walking distance from the Wilkinsburg Train Station and Regent Square, the renovated Lohr Building will provide future tenants with distinctive office space featuring 11- to 13-foot high ceilings, arched windows offering abundant natural light, ample parking and rents that are roughly one-third of East Liberty’s properties.

- At the end of the month, the WCDC will move into a new office inside the historic Lohr Building on Wood St., becoming the first tenant at the newly renovated, 130-year-old structure. To make access even easier, local officials are petitioning PennDOT to turn Wood St. into a two-way road.





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- Just a few blocks away, another older structure is getting new life at 1009 Wood Street. Brian Sieffert of Artemis Construction & Design, is redeveloping the building, which has 10 small storefronts and ample second-floor office space.

- Tenants there will include Jae Co Studio, a commercial commissary kitchen accessible to private chefs and caterers. Owner Jasmine Smith, a personal chef and caterer for high-profile clients such as Ryan Shazier and Javon Hargrave of the Pittsburgh Steelers, will also offer a full-service venue with elegant décor where customers can host events.

- Another new tenant at 1009 Wood is Casey Renee who will create products for her wholesale business, Confections. The space will serve as a pickup location for online orders as well as a meeting space for wedding consultations.

- And lifelong Wilkinsburg resident Kayla Lee is moving her salon, Tiffany’s On Wood, to a larger site on Wood St. to accommodate her growing clientele.



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  #2862  
Old Posted Oct 8, 2019, 6:07 PM
eschaton eschaton is offline
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I find it interesting - though perhaps not surprising - that even as Western Wilkinsburg like the Wood Street corridor continues to improve, Penn Avenue - particularly east of Center Street - just continues to get worse and worse in terms of blight and abandonment.

Basically everything on the south side of this block is abandoned for example.
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  #2863  
Old Posted Oct 8, 2019, 7:02 PM
dfiler dfiler is offline
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Thanks for all the updates!

I am cautiously optimistic about wood street in Wilkinsburg. Penn Ave is, as you mentioned, a whole different ball game. But wood seems to be on the verge of transformation.

High profile / high budget projects like the train station restoration usually seem unmerited to me. But if it can lure an anchor tenant that draws customers, other development might finally jump the busway into Wilkinsburg. Off the top of my head, a brewery and high end restaurant could do that if marketed correctly. Wilkinsburg has good bones and grit. Combined with a destination brewery/restaurant in a historic building, this could actually work! I would hate to see people economically displaced but we're a long loooong way from that.
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  #2864  
Old Posted Oct 9, 2019, 1:33 AM
BrianTH BrianTH is offline
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I have hope the revitalization of the area around Wood Street will eventually spread down Penn farther east--but it is going to be a race for some of those buildings, a race the historic Penn-Lincoln Hotel already lost.

Supposedly its demolition was going to make way for a new development, but so far . . . nope.
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  #2865  
Old Posted Oct 9, 2019, 1:30 PM
eschaton eschaton is offline
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URA agenda up for tomorrow. The big news here, according to the Post-Gazette, is the URA is going to vote on preliminary approvals which are needed in order to begin construction on the first residential development in the Lower Hill.

There's some other interesting stuff in the agenda as well, though as usual, the limited information makes it hard to analyze. I'm particularly intrigued by the nine projects which have put in for low-income housing tax credits, as some of them are new projects I have not heard of before - though generally speaking the names of the projects give away where they are planned to be located.

Edit: PBT notes more, including a proposal to loan $2 million to the developer planning to build the 220-unit, six-story apartment building on Railroad Street in the Strip (between the Cork Factory and Consumer Fresh Produce).

Last edited by eschaton; Oct 9, 2019 at 6:18 PM.
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  #2866  
Old Posted Oct 10, 2019, 7:20 PM
dfiler dfiler is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTH View Post
I have hope the revitalization of the area around Wood Street will eventually spread down Penn farther east--but it is going to be a race for some of those buildings, a race the historic Penn-Lincoln Hotel already lost.

Supposedly its demolition was going to make way for a new development, but so far . . . nope.
That demolition bothered me as well. It could have been renovated in the same way as the Nabisco building in Bakery Square. It might have sat for another 10 years but it's not like vacant lots are going to draw development to Penn ave in Wilkinsburg. On the other hand, an amazing historic building large enough commercial use would have been a draw. The demolition was really short-sighted.
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  #2867  
Old Posted Oct 11, 2019, 1:45 AM
eschaton eschaton is offline
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It appears the URA tabled the motion to fund the new Lower Hill project...for now. The reason did not have anything to do with community opposition to details of the plan, so much as community frustration that little advance notice was given of the vote, and there was really no time for the public to review the plan.

Next Pittsburgh has reported, however, that funding was given for the Strip District apartment project, along with a few other smaller projects.
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  #2868  
Old Posted Oct 11, 2019, 11:56 AM
BobMcKelvin BobMcKelvin is offline
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I was checking out the new Choice Neighborhoods development in Larimer and I see they plan on utilizing this underpass beneath East Liberty Blvd for an eventual trail connection.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4647...7i13312!8i6656

From digging around in some old aerial photos, it appears this bridge carried East Liberty Blvd over the original route of Negley Run Road. Then sometime in the 50s, the new connection was made at Collins Street for direct access to Centre Ave. Interestingly Negley Run seems to have split at the top of the hill and used both the old underpass and the new Collins connection for a while, based on the Penn Pilot photo from 1967.

At some time in the 70s or 80s, the old route was abandoned and Negley Run got its modern day configuration.
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  #2869  
Old Posted Oct 11, 2019, 4:48 PM
GeneW GeneW is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eschaton View Post
It appears the URA tabled the motion to fund the new Lower Hill project...for now. The reason did not have anything to do with community opposition to details of the plan, so much as community frustration that little advance notice was given of the vote, and there was really no time for the public to review the plan.

Next Pittsburgh has reported, however, that funding was given for the Strip District apartment project, along with a few other smaller projects.
Quote:
Located next to the Cork Factory Lofts, the five-story building will include 220 rental units. Of that total, 94 units will be optimized for communal living, meaning residents will have smaller private rooms opening onto shared communal kitchens and lounges.
Interesting but not sure how that will play here in Pittsburgh.
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  #2870  
Old Posted Oct 15, 2019, 3:03 AM
BenM BenM is offline
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Interesting but not sure how that will play here in Pittsburgh.
Isn't the target audience young people? Recent college grads from CMU, Pitt etc. and not locals?
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  #2871  
Old Posted Oct 15, 2019, 2:58 PM
BrianTH BrianTH is offline
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Etna is about to become the very first certified "Ecodistrict":

https://www.nextpittsburgh.com/city-...ning-downtown/

The link explains what that means, but it is a pretty cool distinction for Etna and the region.

Generally, there is a lot of good stuff happening in the Millvale/Etna/Sharpsburg stretch.
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  #2872  
Old Posted Oct 15, 2019, 3:04 PM
BrianTH BrianTH is offline
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I'm generally skeptical about using tax incentives to try to attract business site locations, but the film industry is an exception and I hope we get more aggressive about using them:

https://www.nextpittsburgh.com/lates...ark-even-more/

The reason I am skeptical in general is most of the time, business site location decisions are made for other, more important, more fundamental reasons than tax incentives, such as proximity to upstream suppliers, downstream customers, the necessary labor force, and so on. So most of the time, the tax incentives in question are really just reducing revenues, without actually changing the businesses' site location decisions.

The film industry is an exception, though, because it is by nature a mobile and temporary sort of site location decision that film producers are making. And in that limited context, tax incentives can actually make a decisive difference, as those other "fundamentals" are far weaker than usual.
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  #2873  
Old Posted Oct 15, 2019, 3:22 PM
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Austinlee Austinlee is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTH View Post
I'm generally skeptical about using tax incentives to try to attract business site locations, but the film industry is an exception and I hope we get more aggressive about using them:

https://www.nextpittsburgh.com/lates...ark-even-more/

The reason I am skeptical in general is most of the time, business site location decisions are made for other, more important, more fundamental reasons than tax incentives, such as proximity to upstream suppliers, downstream customers, the necessary labor force, and so on. So most of the time, the tax incentives in question are really just reducing revenues, without actually changing the businesses' site location decisions.

The film industry is an exception, though, because it is by nature a mobile and temporary sort of site location decision that film producers are making. And in that limited context, tax incentives can actually make a decisive difference, as those other "fundamentals" are far weaker than usual.
Well said and yes that does seem to be the case.
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  #2874  
Old Posted Oct 15, 2019, 5:49 PM
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pj3000 pj3000 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTH View Post
Etna is about to become the very first certified "Ecodistrict":

https://www.nextpittsburgh.com/city-...ning-downtown/

The link explains what that means, but it is a pretty cool distinction for Etna and the region.

Generally, there is a lot of good stuff happening in the Millvale/Etna/Sharpsburg stretch.
It’s a bit of a marketing gimmick to slap a plaque on something and give money to a “certifying organization” (much like LEED), but it’s a good indicator of community engagement and focus on a sound development plan for the future.

Sharpsburg and Millvale are pursuing this as well as part of the branded “Triboro EcoDistrict”.
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  #2875  
Old Posted Oct 16, 2019, 12:11 AM
bmust71 bmust71 is offline
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According to the PBT, plans for the Sears Outlet at 51st street are moving forward by a new developer, Spear Street Capital. Renderings and more detail can be found in this Lawrenceville United presentation:

http://www.lunited.org/wp-content/up...eetCapital.pdf

PBT article says their plan is to start construction in the Summer 2020
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  #2876  
Old Posted Oct 16, 2019, 11:33 AM
BrianTH BrianTH is offline
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According to the PBT, plans for the Sears Outlet at 51st street are moving forward by a new developer, Spear Street Capital. Renderings and more detail can be found in this Lawrenceville United presentation
In my ideal world, we'd be building upwards more in any riverfront location.

But since this is Upper Lawrenceville--that seems OK.
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  #2877  
Old Posted Oct 16, 2019, 1:28 PM
eschaton eschaton is offline
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PBT is reporting (not behind paywall) that the delayed vote on the Lower Hill projects is now scheduled for this Friday. Fingers crossed.

Also, Next Pittsburgh has a bit more information on Walnut Capital's "Bakery Square Refresh 2020" project.
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  #2878  
Old Posted Oct 17, 2019, 5:38 PM
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Still vacant: Prime Downtown lot attracts lots of parking, no redevelopment

https://www.post-gazette.com/busines...s/201910160188



Sounds like the owner of this property wanted to develop a more formal surface parking lot on this tract with an indefinite timeframe on which to develop some type of building on it.

The lot which I'd like to see put to better use is the lot across from the city-county building on Grant. Should be a park, not a parking lot. City halls should always sit across from a park/square, in my world.
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  #2879  
Old Posted Oct 17, 2019, 6:16 PM
BrianTH BrianTH is offline
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Still vacant: Prime Downtown lot attracts lots of parking, no redevelopment
All this feels like long term land-banking to me. It can be quite rational to wait a LONG time before pulling the trigger on these sorts of lots, which is why public policy should find ways to discourage that--such as by taxing land value and not just the value of the current use of that land.
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  #2880  
Old Posted Oct 17, 2019, 6:42 PM
BrianTH BrianTH is offline
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A joint APTA/NAR study has (once again) concluded that proximity to dedicated transit service leads to various economic benefits:

https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/loc...-estate-values

The challenging topography in Pittsburgh requires creative solutions, but this is yet more evidence that we should be prioritizing this sort of public capital investment.
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