PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown III

[Urbanthusiat]

I'd definitely want a sun study done if I were the Pirates... Don't want the building directing sunbeams into the stadium. But if there aren't, I'm all for it.

[BrianTH]

Using the hotels for scale--that could be pretty cool.

[highlander206]

Originally Posted by mikebarbaro

Not sure if this was posted before at all but I just saw this updated rendering for the PNC Park office towers on Post Gazette...

Those look awesome! I remember this being proposed some 4-5 years ago, so it's nice to see there it still hope at it coming to fruition.

[Minivan Werner]

Are there any height restrictions in that spot?

[photoLith]

I hope to god that gets built. Would add incredible density. It would make the Pirates Stadium feel much more like it's actually in the city and not just in a suburban Walmart parking lot.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

My Dad worked his whole career for General Motors (as a physicist in their research labs). We lived in boring suburbs growing up, and I couldn't wait to leave.

My Dad retired and then built a (very) small empire of rental homes during the Great Recession. He passed a bit ago and I was tasked with selling off the homes, which ended up generating a nice return thanks to that part of the area (around Royal Oak/Berkley) recovering. My sister took his house in Pleasant Ridge (same town he grew up in), and we visit her sometimes (I got his 1964 Corvette, and I like Pittsburgh, so she can have the house). That area is really cool--very hip with lots of neat old houses. We also visit Downtown and it is amazing to see it now (after what it was like growing up).

Long story short--it is almost surreal how different our experiences there now are from what it was like growing up there in the generic suburbs in the 1970s/80s. Which I guess is what a ton of people from Pittsburgh feel too, when they come back to visit these days.

Very interesting. Owner of investment properties & a 1964 corvette. Your dad sounds awesome! (Physicist is impressive but I can't relate to that) And yes, boomers coming back to the city are usually impressed with the progress.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Looks like we might - finally - get some new apartments on the North Shore. The Post-Gazette is reporting a new plan for the conversion of the historic building remaining on Reedsdale Street near the T station. The old plan was a 129-room hotel which fell through due to financing concerns. The new plan will involve 33,000 square feet of Class A office space, and 20 apartment units - mostly in a new-construction annex built on the roof. Kinda a drop in the bucket, but at least it's a start.

I don't see how they could go wrong with that location & across the street from the trolley.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by Urbanthusiat

I'd definitely want a sun study done if I were the Pirates... Don't want the building directing sunbeams into the stadium. But if there aren't, I'm all for it.

Pgh has around 235 overcast/cloudy days a year. What's a sunbeam?? (one of the top 4 overcast cities in the US along with Seattle, Portland & Buffalo)

Originally Posted by photoLith

I hope to god that gets built. Would add incredible density. It would make the Pirates Stadium feel much more like it's actually in the city and not just in a suburban Walmart parking lot.

Agreed, that massing is great for the Northshore.

Now that the rendering no longer looks like it was swiped from Clipart '95 it doesn't look so bad.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Very interesting. Owner of investment properties & a 1964 corvette. Your dad sounds awesome! (Physicist is impressive but I can't relate to that) And yes, boomers coming back to the city are usually impressed with the progress.

He was really into math (no surprise for a physicist), so had VERY well-worked-out financial plans for the rental houses. He also liked to tinker--his work involved a lot of instrument building, and at home he did a lot of stuff on our house, and in fact he designed and did a lot of the work on a cabin we had growing up. So all that also translated to working on the rental homes. Definitely cool "hobbies" for retirement purposes.

The Corvette is a whole other story. He interned with GM as a student and then went to work for them straight out of getting his PhD. He bought one Corvette, then traded it in for another (a '67). Then my older brother came along in '69, and he sold the Corvette to put a down payment on a suitable family house.

And he NEVER let us forget it. We heard that story over and over again growing up. And we were thrilled when he retired, and he bought one again.

Anyway, I was always skeptical of small real estate investments, and still think there are safer ways to invest in real estate for purely financial purposes. But when you start thinking of them as a hobby--I could actually see doing that myself now, some day.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

I don't see how they could go wrong with that location & across the street from the trolley.

I know some people don't like projects like that, but I often respond positively. Again, very DC-looking to me, and it is a way to balance out these considerations of preserving the feel of historic areas while still allowing for increased intensity of use.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I know some people don't like projects like that, but I often respond positively. Again, very DC-looking to me, and it is a way to balance out these considerations of preserving the feel of historic areas while still allowing for increased intensity of use.

The shocking part of all of this is this is only going to be the second residential development on the North Shore. Morgan at North Shore is still the only place (aside from some random homeless people) with any residents.

A lot of that is of course due to the intransigence of The Steelers (via Continental) in putting any residential units in the Stadum Authority-owned land between Heinz Field and PNC Park. But I've always found it odd there's not a single apartment conversion in the blocks around the Warhol or something.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

The shocking part of all of this is this is only going to be the second residential development on the North Shore.

And people will say no one wants to be there, but then there have been a bunch of hotels.

Pretty puzzling indeed.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

He was really into math (no surprise for a physicist), so had VERY well-worked-out financial plans for the rental houses. He also liked to tinker--his work involved a lot of instrument building, and at home he did a lot of stuff on our house, and in fact he designed and did a lot of the work on a cabin we had growing up. So all that also translated to working on the rental homes. Definitely cool "hobbies" for retirement purposes.

The Corvette is a whole other story. He interned with GM as a student and then went to work for them straight out of getting his PhD. He bought one Corvette, then traded it in for another (a '67). Then my older brother came along in '69, and he sold the Corvette to put a down payment on a suitable family house.

And he NEVER let us forget it. We heard that story over and over again growing up. And we were thrilled when he retired, and he bought one again.

Anyway, I was always skeptical of small real estate investments, and still think there are safer ways to invest in real estate for purely financial purposes. But when you start thinking of them as a hobby--I could actually see doing that myself now, some day.

Good stuff. It's nice to have a car with a story behind it like that.

As for small real estate investments; If you care about your places and take care of them they can make you some money. The owners who act like everything is a hassle and don't take care of their properties usually end up with high turnover and lots of headaches. Of course larger real estate investments are preferable but have a much higher cost of entry that is out of reach of your average middle class person.

If you are ever interested in looking at investment homes, I can help! That's what I do all day; showing properties including working with many investors.

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by eschaton

The shocking part of all of this is this is only going to be the second residential development on the North Shore. Morgan at North Shore is still the only place (aside from some random homeless people) with any residents.

A lot of that is of course due to the intransigence of The Steelers (via Continental) in putting any residential units in the Stadum Authority-owned land between Heinz Field and PNC Park. But I've always found it odd there's not a single apartment conversion in the blocks around the Warhol or something.

It seems residential starts North of RT 65. It might be that investors are watching what Continental does with their land before they follow suit but we know that Continental has taken so long and and has completely ignored the residential component (Although they have just about everything else - Office, retail, entertainment). Or perhaps that strip of land has just never been thought of as a liveable neighborhood by local residents and developers?
I find it surprising as well.

I recently met with a current resident of the Morgan at North Shore showing her an apartment in Lawrenceville and she said that it is only half full and that they are about to renovate it because it is getting dated.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Austinlee

It seems residential starts North of RT 65. It might be that investors are watching what Continental does with their land before they follow suit but we know that Continental has taken so long and and has completely ignored the residential component (Although they have just about everything else - Office, retail, entertainment). Or perhaps that strip of land has just never been thought of as a liveable neighborhood by local residents and developers?

Continental's stories about why it doesn't do residential keep shifting. At first it was "too risky." Then it was "too busy with other projects." Now it's "we think the apartment market in Greater Downtown is almost saturated."

Originally Posted by Austinlee

I recently met with a current resident of the Morgan at North Shore showing her an apartment in Lawrenceville and she said that it is only half full and that they are about to renovate it because it is getting dated.

The complex is from the 1990s, IIRC. That said, they did do a partial refurbishment a few years back (used to have a red roof I believe) so I'm surprised it's already getting time to spruce up again. It's a great location overall, and the much more awkwardly situated Heinz Lofts just keeps growing and growing and growing.

[eschaton]

In good, development-tangental news, The Port Authority was one of the few major transit agencies to see an increase in ridership in 2018. Some details:

1. Overall trips in 2018 were 64.2 million - a 1.2 million increase from 2017 (up 1.95%). This is the first increase in ridership for two years, the highest overall since at least 2013, and contrasts with a nationwide decline of 1.75% over roughly the same period.

2. The percentage increase would likely have been even higher if it wasn't for the T, which was negatively impacted by the flooding which affected the Blue Line and the freight train derailment in August.

3. Overall growth in bus ridership was the fourth-highest of any city in the country (only Houston, Columbus, and Oakland were higher).

4. It's clear the Port Authority isn't sure why ridership increased substantially yet.

[eschaton]

In other development news, the University of Pittsburgh is directly leasing 87 apartments in "The Bridge on Forbes" building being constructed at 3423 Forbes Avenue. The building is supposed to have 197 apartments last that I heard, so less than half of it is slated to be used as a glorified dorm (unless some other colleges are also directly leasing units).

Edit: This shows why there's probably a lot of additional capacity for new apartment units in Oakland, even if the market may be cooling elsewhere in the city. There's virtually bottomless demand for apartment units for students - particularly if we can have a steady pipeline of chopped up houses/illegal house shares which are converted back into single-family homes on the other end.

[Wiz Khalifa]

Wasn't there a proposal a while back about a large apartment project at the intersection of Bates st. and the boulevard of the allies where those run down tenement houses are?

With all the construction going on along Fifth and Forbes one would think that this plot would be a desirable spillover location for apartments.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Wiz Khalifa

Wasn't there a proposal a while back about a large apartment project at the intersection of Bates st. and the boulevard of the allies where those run down tenement houses are?

With all the construction going on along Fifth and Forbes one would think that this plot would be a desirable spillover location for apartments.

There was such a proposal. It involved several different aspects, including the developer widening all of Bates Street and building a multi-modal garage on the hillside. It went over like a lead balloon with the locals (and the garage would have had to be built on areas zoned H (Hillside) which are supposed to be thinned out for drainage purposes). Plus people in the area didn't like the developer wanted to buy Zulema Parklet from the city and eliminate a small stub street where the grids awkwardly crash together.

As far as I know the developer then just abandoned the plan entirely.

[BobLoblaw]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I haven't seen it discussed in any news articles, but demolition permits have gone out for the three historic buildings at the corner of W North Ave and Federal.

As of today, the two buildings closest to the corner of Federal have been demolished. I assume the one beside the Garden Theater will follow shortly.