PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown III

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I will say a lot of it comes down to the details of the pricing of the units. Looking at the URA's definitions for area AMI, a building with 80% AMI units would work great as workforce housing.

Units at 50% AMI work well for working parents, but they're getting to the threshold where most single folks working hourly jobs might be priced out (You'd need to make less than $16 an hour if you worked full-time).

Units priced at 30% AMI would, for the most part, have income limits too low to cover anyone employed full time these days. Unless perhaps some tipped workers don't report all of their tips as income, but this is taking advantage of the system to score units that other people frankly need more.



Right. I remember some of that back when I moved to Pittsburgh in 2005, and I know there was even more of it in times past. I'm not disputing Downtown has been in worse shape, only that this is the only time since I've lived here downtown has had negative momentum (and it's probably the only section of the city, other than South Side, which hasn't been improving recently).

I want to make clear that if these projects were going forward five years ago, I would have unqualified support. It's not just about the wrong place; it's also worrying it's the wrong time. It's not like there's a tremendous pipeline of market-rate conversions going forward right now. AFAIK, nothing new other than the triangle building is being converted now, though there's plenty of talk.

PA has a very low minimum wage. There are full time workers making less than 16 dollars per hour. The working class should not be relegated to the inconvenient transit starved Mon Valley until others like yourself feel it’s their time. I would not suggest holding their breathe waiting for that. Pittsburgh is resilient and will spring back better than ever before.

[eschaton]

February 20th Planning Commission presentation is up. Another light agenda, with three items, but no major new projects:

1. The Commission is reviewing Bobby Wilson's proposed modification to zoning code to allow by right construction of attached housing in most areas zoned for detached residential. Not much further to say here. The discussion should prove interesting.

2. Historical nomination of Beth Abraham Cemetery. Nothing in the presentation but photos at the moment, though there was a much more complete application sent to the HRC earlier in the month.

3. New sign permit for The Pittsburgh Foundation. This is for the former "4 moms" building over by CAPA, which overlooks the Allegheny.

Also, the March 14th ZBA is online. There is something of note here - the application for the 37th Street Apartments in Lower Lawrenceville. This is the first full-site rendering of the 50-unit development I've seen. Looks quite sharp in terms of massing, though I'm still curious if they're going to keep it that off-white or the color palette is still TBD.

[BrianTH]

Some of this conversation reminds me of conversations I used to have back when I was regularly walking to the East Busway to commute Downtown. I would encounter people who would say things like they could never imagine feeling safe doing that. And I always tried to point out that once you experienced it, there is in fact nothing particularly scary about sleepy working class people on their way back and forth from work.

Of course I understand there is some nuance here. But for sure if most of these units end up being taken by people who want to live Downtown because they work nearby, I do not think they will end up being a negative at all for Downtown's development trajectory.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I want to make clear that if these projects were going forward five years ago, I would have unqualified support. It's not just about the wrong place; it's also worrying it's the wrong time. It's not like there's a tremendous pipeline of market-rate conversions going forward right now. AFAIK, nothing new other than the triangle building is being converted now, though there's plenty of talk.

Yes, the timing is key to this. Empty offices and especially a pot of ARPA covid recovery cash from the feds are fueling this. The URA even said that they have never seen such a high number of affordable housing tax credit applications, nor such a high concentration of these applications for downtown properties.

These are just the new office-to-affordable developments in the works that I've heard about:

- John P. Robin Civic Building
- First & Market Building
- 4 Smithfield St.
- PACT steam plant building on Ft. Duquesne Blvd.

There's a bunch of federal grant money flowing into existing "affordable" buildings as well, for full renovations and expansions.

We've seen downtowns awash in federal grants before for the ostensibly good purposes of providing afforable housing and eliminating blight... the timing was key then too, and we saw disastrous results that cities like Pittsburgh are STILL recovering from.

Originally Posted by wpipkins2

PA has a very low minimum wage. There are full time workers making less than 16 dollars per hour. The working class should not be relegated to the inconvenient transit starved Mon Valley until others like yourself feel it’s their time. I would not suggest holding their breathe waiting for that. Pittsburgh is resilient and will spring back better than ever before.

Who says working class people are "relegated" to the Mon Valley? As if there's not plenty of "working class" areas to reside within Pittsburgh proper/bordering municiplaities... come on.

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Of course I understand there is some nuance here. But for sure if most of these units end up being taken by people who want to live Downtown because they work nearby, I do not think they will end up being a negative at all for Downtown's development trajectory.

Absolutely. But that never seems to be what these developments actually end up being. I think it's incredibly idealistic, actually naive, to believe that these types of developments are envisioned to be filled with a working class. There's more money to be made by designating significant (to majority) portions of the development to section 8, homeless programs, "bridge" housing, enhanced services housing.

It would actually be very interesting to know the percentage of people living in downtown Pittsburgh affordable housing who are working at least part time.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by pj3000

But that never seems to be what these developments actually end up being. I think it's incredibly idealistic, actually naive, to believe that these types of developments are envisioned to be filled with a working class.

I'm honestly not sure why you are claiming all this. In many cases I am familiar with, affordable housing initiatives in CBDs have had exactly this effect, they largely filled up with working families. This was, for example, a big thing in DC, and last I knew there continued to be lots of unmet demand among working families for such units.

It would actually be very interesting to know the percentage of people living in downtown Pittsburgh affordable housing who are working at least part time.

I agree, more data and less speculation would likely benefit this discussion.

[BrianTH]

So kinda a niche topic, but Shady Side Academy has released their new master campus plan:

https://ournextmove.shadysideacademy.org/campus-plan

The biggest single thing is they are moving their middle school to the senior school campus to create a joint upper school campus, and that involves constructing a swank new middle school building where the old library was--the library has already moved to a renovated building, the former chapel. They are also renovating various other buildings, including overhauling the dining hall to become more of a college-style student center.

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by eschaton

February 20th Planning Commission presentation is up. Another light agenda, with three items, but no major new projects:

1. The Commission is reviewing Bobby Wilson's proposed modification to zoning code to allow by right construction of attached housing in most areas zoned for detached residential. Not much further to say here. The discussion should prove interesting.

2. Historical nomination of Beth Abraham Cemetery. Nothing in the presentation but photos at the moment, though there was a much more complete application sent to the HRC earlier in the month.

3. New sign permit for The Pittsburgh Foundation. This is for the former "4 moms" building over by CAPA, which overlooks the Allegheny.

Also, the March 14th ZBA is online. There is something of note here - the application for the 37th Street Apartments in Lower Lawrenceville. This is the first full-site rendering of the 50-unit development I've seen. Looks quite sharp in terms of massing, though I'm still curious if they're going to keep it that off-white or the color palette is still TBD.

That stretch of Penn of Penn Ave developed slowly but nicely over the years. This new infill apartment complex fits in well with the surrounding neighborhood.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by pj3000

- 4 Smithfield St.

Just want to say for the record, this isn't happening any time soon. My office is in 4 Smithfield Street!

The owner has apparently approached my boss about swapping us into space in the Law & Finance building, but we only moved in 2021, and he really doesn't want to have to do a second move again so soon.

We're on a ten-year lease, so if they don't buy us out, I can't see how it could be done.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I'm honestly not sure why you are claiming all this. In many cases I am familiar with, affordable housing initiatives in CBDs have had exactly this effect, they largely filled up with working families. This was, for example, a big thing in DC, and last I knew there continued to be lots of unmet demand among working families for such units.



I agree, more data and less speculation would likely benefit this discussion.

I'm talking about downtown Pittsburgh specifically. I would hope what you're describing (filling up with working families) is the case with future developments.

But I have strong doubts that this is case in downtown Pittsburgh currently... I'd love to see the data on the number of working families residing in downtown Pittsburgh affordable developments. Yes, it's speculation, but I would bet a good chunk of coin that the majority of "affordable" housing units in downtown Pittsburgh are not occupied by working families/working class residents, but rather are subsidized for elderly, disabled, and others on public assistance of one form or another.

For instance, the May Building or Midtown Towers downtown... 1 bdrm goes for $1500 per month. You really think the residents are actually paying that much in rent? These are both prime examples of affordable, privately owned and managed affordable developments that receive Housing Authority-designated public housing unit subsidies.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by pj3000

I'm talking about downtown Pittsburgh specifically.

Oh, I would not think we have enough recent case studies for Downtown Pittsburgh specifically. This sort of thing is very much a moving target as it depends on present employment and affordability patterns, the exact nature of the affordability plan, management practices, and so on.

I do know there are many cases studies and such of workforce affordable housing across a variety of markets. People use those sorts of studies to identify factors in success, and you could use that to then analyze any given project in Pittsburgh.

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Some of this conversation reminds me of conversations I used to have back when I was regularly walking to the East Busway to commute Downtown. I would encounter people who would say things like they could never imagine feeling safe doing that. And I always tried to point out that once you experienced it, there is in fact nothing particularly scary about sleepy working class people on their way back and forth from work.

Of course I understand there is some nuance here. But for sure if most of these units end up being taken by people who want to live Downtown because they work nearby, I do not think they will end up being a negative at all for Downtown's development trajectory.

I never understood the fear. Everyday people living just enough for the city are harmless in my eyes.

[eschaton]

Walnut Capital had a Development Activities Meeting with South Side last night, where it went over the plans for the UPMC Mercy campus. At the moment, they include conversion of the existing office tower into a 60-unit apartment building, and building a new 200-unit apartment on the footprint of the old hospital. They believe this can be constructed by right, though there was some light community opposition (mostly because they are not planning on creating a specially planned district) regardless.

As an aside, this is the first time I've discovered the Developmental Activities Meeting subsection of the city's website. I don't anticipate jumping onto random zoom meetings, but there's some information here regarding things in the works I didn't know about (a zoning change in Oakland, for example) and the staff reports offer a lot of context about smaller-scale projects.

[eschaton]

March 21 ZBA is online. Unlike the past few months, there's actually a number of projects of note.

1. Four new infill duplexes on Hermitage Street in Homewood. They're set to replace this set of rowhouses. Looks like each will have a ground-floor two-bedroom unit, with the upper two stories working as a four-bedroom house. I like that there's no off-street parking, though I do have to admit given the number of vacant lots in Homewood, part of me is irked they're doing a teardown and replace rather than actually trying to restore the shell of the existing seven rowhouses.

2. This ZBA hearing for an apartment building in Troy Hill is most notable because looking on Google Earth, the building already seems to be mostly constructed. Not sure if this is an "oops, we fucked up" or what.

3. The ZBA hearing related to the new apartment building to be constructed on the UPMC Mercy Southside location. This is still a very crude plan - just a site map, no design yet. It does make it clear that the four-story 200 unit apartment building will be separate form the 293-stall garage with 7,500 square feet of retail. The garage seems overbuilt, TBH, but I like the flexibility of not including it within the building regarding future retrofits.

4. Finally, the planned conversion of the Mercy office building into an apartment building. This is a lot more detailed than the item above, though little change will be seen from the street aside from restoring a few window openings.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

1. Four new infill duplexes on Hermitage Street in Homewood. They're set to replace this set of rowhouses. Looks like each will have a ground-floor two-bedroom unit, with the upper two stories working as a four-bedroom house. I like that there's no off-street parking, though I do have to admit given the number of vacant lots in Homewood, part of me is irked they're doing a teardown and replace rather than actually trying to restore the shell of the existing seven rowhouses.

Agreed it is a bummer about the shells (and apparently they still have roofs, although who knows how leaky). On the other hand, I am kinda excited about the location.

[dmaTN]

It's amazing to me how little development is happening in the Pittsburgh area. A thriving tech and medical community isn't helping to move the needle. Just a strange situation imo.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by dmaTN

It's amazing to me how little development is happening in the Pittsburgh area. A thriving tech and medical community isn't helping to move the needle. Just a strange situation imo.

The current ice-out of new development isn't being driven by lack of demand (at least on the residential level) but the freezing of commercial financing markets.

That said, word broke last week that one of the long-pending Strip apartment developments secured $121 million in financing, so hopefully at least one major project will get moving again in the Strip again soon.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

The current ice-out of new development isn't being driven by lack of demand (at least on the residential level) but the freezing of commercial financing markets.

I've actually lost track of the number of times this has happened since I moved here in the early 90s. Personally, I've made peace with the idea modern Pittsburgh seems to be seen as a solid but not super-boom investment opportunity when development financing generally is strong, and then gets put on pause whenever development financing is generally weak. While it might be more exciting otherwise, in my time here there really have not been a lot of sustained problems with overbuilding and such either. And I think the overall cumulative effect has ended up really transformative in a lot of areas. It just doesn't happen quickly.

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Agreed it is a bummer about the shells (and apparently they still have roofs, although who knows how leaky). On the other hand, I am kinda excited about the location.

I cannot think of a scarier location than this. This is deep in the worst part of the neighborhood and near the epicenter of the drug trade. This is also blocks away from "Hilltop" which is a isolated but brutal city run housing project. How would your children walk home?

This development would be better if situated between Kelly and Finance streets. This would be closer to the busway, Everyday Cafe, and the Carnegie.

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I've actually lost track of the number of times this has happened since I moved here in the early 90s. Personally, I've made peace with the idea modern Pittsburgh seems to be seen as a solid but not super-boom investment opportunity when development financing generally is strong, and then gets put on pause whenever development financing is generally weak. While it might be more exciting otherwise, in my time here there really have not been a lot of sustained problems with overbuilding and such either. And I think the overall cumulative effect has ended up really transformative in a lot of areas. It just doesn't happen quickly.

Pittsburgh's development has always been conservative but steady.

[photoLith]

The K&L Gates building is going into foreclosure. 78% occupancy rate for it but its owner is One Oliver Associates, LP so their other properties downtown must not be going too hot.