Posted May 16, 2013, 5:10 PM
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Eurosceptic
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Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Pittsburgh
Posts: 24,339
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Quote:
Originally Posted by photoLith
Are there any photos of what was there before? I hate seeing old buildings get torn down, even if they were "boring".
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This was essentially the crappiest most nondescript block downtown. A true void.
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more info on tenants
http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburg....html?page=all
Quote:
May 16, 2013, 11:25am EDT
The Gardens gets the go ahead downtown
Millcraft Investments now has the full approval from the City of Pittsburgh to build its new The Gardens mixed-use development just off Market Square and a mix of prospective tenants to help get the $90 million project going.
The basic outline of the plan: a 176-room Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, 125,000 square feet of multitenant office space and retail totaling 28,000 square feet, with a 300-space parking structure.
Jason Stewart, the director of agency leasing in the Pittsburgh office of Jones Lang LaSalle, expects interest in the office space to come together more quickly now that the project has all its approvals.
“Now that the city of Pittsburgh approvals has provided the utmost certainly in the project, we’re probably going to see the activity increase in the next 30 to 60 days,” said Stewart.
According to the city, the Gardens received full approval from the board of the planning commission on Tuesday for a project designed by Miami-based Arquitectonica that calls for a structure comprising companion 18- and 11-story buildings on one site. The project had to overcome challenges from neighboring property owners over how big and how close the new development would be to them.
That included firms in the neighboring Benedum-Trees building right behind it.
Jon Harrigan, CEO of Pennsylvania Commercial Real Estate Inc., which both occupies and manages Benedum-Trees, said his company was satisfied with a compromise to move a garage entrance in the rear of the Gardens project onto Forbes Avenue.
“I think everybody has been satisfied and I think it’s a good compromise,” he said.
A key component of the project is the degree to which Millcraft and its partners have helped to provide a significant portion of the new building’s tenants.
To start, Millcraft is a franchise operator for the Hilton Garden Inn, so the firm’s hospitality arm will run the hotel.
Millcraft is teaming with Turner Construction, which will be a partner, to build the structure and move its offices there. Stewart estimated the construction firm will take 20,000 to 25,000 square feet in the building.
A Millcraft restaurant concept, Jacksons Restaurant, is expected to open its second location there. Herky Pollock, an executive vice president for CBRE who is representing the retail space in the building, also worked to bring Burgatory to the development, a business in which he is a partner.
Stewart expects the project to find a niche with office tenants who want newly built office space but aren’t big enough to take a large lease in other new office projects in or around downtown.
With it now broadly expected that a new office project needs to be half-leased to generate financing, Stewart expects Turner’s presence in the building gives a decent head start to reaching a decent occupancy level.
The office space is being marketed for lease at between $33 and $35 per square foot, according to the March 8 issue of the Commercial Real Estate Guide published by the Pittsburgh Business Times.
Construction is expected to begin soon this year.
Tim Schooley covers retail, real estate, small business, hospitality, arts and entertainment, government and media. Contact him at tschooley@bizjournals.com or 412-208-3826.
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