PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown III

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Brentsters

https://www.etnacommunity.org/post/e...s-to-the-river

The Etna Riverfront Park, just west of the 62nd St bridge, will open this month.

The Allegheny RiverTrail Park (renamed from Aspinwall Riverfront Park) acquired land from Mosites/Riverfront 47 that should eventually help close the gap from the east.

Mosites' Allegheny Shores development in Sharpsburg and O'Hara comprises 60 acres on the riverfront and will connect the expanded Aspinwall Riverfront Park to Etna. The very prelim renderings for Sharpsburg/O'Hara look beautiful.

[BrianTH]

Truly random follow up to the point above about the historic diversity of the Hill District, but this is a really neat image from 1869 mapping the horsecar lines at the time (horsecars were the first rail-based streetcars/trams, with the vehicles running on tracks but pulled by horses):



Part of what this emphasizes is how little has changed in terms of topographic challenges and how they funnel development and transportation in Pittsburgh.

But also that line up the Hill to "Minersville" (in what today would be known as the Upper Hill) is indicative of how the Hill was in this era being densely populated (and also mined!). This ended up with the Hill being populated with a real mix of the different working class immigrants and migrants who moved to Pittsburgh in its early industrial period.

And that leads me to this cool Father Pitt post about the Minersville Cemetery, located in the Upper Hill, which discusses the ethnic diversity apparent from the gravestones:

https://pittsburghcemeteries.wordpre...ille-cemetery/

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Truly random follow up to the point above about the historic diversity of the Hill District, but this is a really neat image from 1869 mapping the horsecar lines at the time (horsecars were the first rail-based streetcars/trams, with the vehicles running on tracks but pulled by horses):



Part of what this emphasizes is how little has changed in terms of topographic challenges and how they funnel development and transportation in Pittsburgh.

But also that line up the Hill to "Minersville" (in what today would be known as the Upper Hill) is indicative of how the Hill was in this era being densely populated (and also mined!). This ended up with the Hill being populated with a real mix of the different working class immigrants and migrants who moved to Pittsburgh in its early industrial period.

And that leads me to this cool Father Pitt post about the Minersville Cemetery, located in the Upper Hill, which discusses the ethnic diversity apparent from the gravestones:

https://pittsburghcemeteries.wordpre...ille-cemetery/

This cemetery is adjacent to the PPS practice fields for Obama. I used to walk the cemetery which is located in Sugartop. You can see the neighborhood changes through the names on the headstones. I remember some of them dating back to the 1860s and realizing people didn't live that long back then.

[eschaton]

PFHA's 2021 multifamily grants have been announced. Within the City of Pittsburgh there are three grantees:

1. 46-units of affordable housing in Fairywood.

2. 31-units of scattered-site housing in Allentown.

3. Conversion of this historic school building in the Hill District into 46 units of housing.

[deja vu]

Just some aerial views of the Arsenal 201 (Phase II) progress in Lawrenceville -






Source: LinkedIn | Jake Dietrich (VP, Milhaus)

[pj3000]

I feel like the Arsenal apartments take up a ridiculous amount of land. Would have loved to see taller buildings in the 10-15 story range.

[BrianTH]

Might be due for a reassessment:

https://patch.com/pennsylvania/pitts...-amazon-center

Amazon has completed its purchase of the former Eastland Mall site and will build a distribution center on the property.

In December, North Versailles commissioners gave approval to Trammell Crow Company to build a 141,386 square-foot warehouse on the long-dormant property. The developer declined to identify the company moving into the building but deed transfer records show that Amazon has purchased the 46-acre site, the Pittsburgh Business Times reported this week.

The property currently is valued at $690,000, according to Allegheny County property assessment records.
. . .

The mall already was in bankruptcy in 1986 when Gimbels went out of business, a devastating blow for the complex. Benderson Development Co. of Buffalo, NY bought the site in 1988 for $1.2 million; a Benderson subsidiary, Realty Development Eastland Inc., sold it to Amazon for $9 million.

Meanwhile, as far as I know, Amazon is still moving ahead with its plan to build a distribution center in the former Westinghouse complex in Churchill, which is maybe 4-5 miles from Eastland--although I believe the Churchill one may be a lot larger (2.9 million square feet).

[BrianTH]

Nice long article about the home buying market in the Pittsburgh area, which apparently does not have quite as many buyers as earlier in the year, but homes are still going quickly after multiple bids, and ordinary buyers are still often losing out to cash buyers (which is part of why buyers are down as apparently some of those ordinary buyers have just given up for now):

https://www.post-gazette.com/busines...s/202110170053

This dovetails with evidence of greatly increased buying of homes by LLCs, including non-local LLCs. For example, the article above notes Penn Hills is one of the munis experiencing a big increase in sales, and in this post Chris Briem notes that out of the 17 Penn Hills transactions listed by the Tribune Review for the week of 9/26, 7 were to LLCs, 3 of which were national companies:

https://twitter.com/chrisbriem/statu...786539011?s=20

This is all part of a nationwide phenomenon, but in the past Pittsburgh has not necessarily tracked national trends like this. On the other hand, data for years has suggested the Pittsburgh market was particularly profitable for flippers, so it is not such a surprise this time.

Which brings me to a final link of personal interest. Flippers bought this former rundown multi-unit on East End Avenue in Park Place (the Pittsburgh subneighborhood north of Forbes and east of Braddock next to Wilkinsburg) for $50K, did what looks like a nice job converting it into a single family home, and are now listing it for $750K:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4...11341355_zpid/

That would be $258/sqft, which initially struck me as high, but it turns out another flipped home in Park Place recently sold for $260/sqft:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5...11342122_zpid/

What particularly amuses me about 408 East End Ave is as a single graduate student in the 1990s, I shared an apartment in a similar building directly across the street. One of my often-told personal anecdotes is if you want an idea what sort of quality we are talking about, not long after I moved out, the building was condemned and torn down. You can actually see that vacant lot in the bottom just left of center of this marketing bird's eye photo, partially obscured by trees next to the red roof building--the home for sale is the blue-gray one with the porch across the street:



Of course that is a long time ago now, but still, the listing price for that place across the street compared to its sales price as a multi-unit tells you how rapidly all this is now changing, and how undersupplied the market is with decent SFHs right now.

As a final thought, I note in that bird's eye photo you can see the Rockwell Park development area in the upper center. And that of course is a lot of what is driving this, the ongoing clustering of higher-paying jobs nearby. Which is an "everything old is new again" thing, as the clustering of jobs in the warehouses and factories along the railroad, along eventually with streetcar links and such, is what originally drove the development of these neighborhoods. And here we are again.

[eschaton]

I've been watching the second Phase of Arsenal 201 being put together pretty closely, since it's on my regular bike commute home. It absolutely does look a little cheaper than Phase 1, but it's also less visible. I've been surprised that it seems like no work has been done yet on the historic officer's house restoration, but maybe they're going to do that in concert with the site prep for the surrounding outside area (which I think will include a pool).

In somewhat related news, the retail in Phase 1 is no longer totally vacant. There is now a small barbershop and a bagel store in the buildings fronting on Butler. A long way until vitality, but that was such a dead edge that anything helps.

It will be interesting to see what Phase 3 brings. IIRC they were considering either another parking garage or an additional residential building depending upon demand. I also believe they may finally connect Foster Street through once that phase is underway.

Unfortunately it may be some years still until the final portion of the old warehouse) with the Rite-Aid) is redeveloped.

[photoLith]

Have any of you noticed that downtown has gotten way more ghetto and crappy in the past year? It really sucks. I moved to Pittsburgh in 2013 and have gone downtown almost everyday since 2020 and it was getting better every year until the pointless rona shut downs. But in the past year and a half downtown has really degraded. I don’t go downtown as much anymore in the past year as I live in Carnegie now. But today I went downtown and I saw three ghetto fights from 1-3pm and just lots more hobos begging for money than usual. I talked to some people while walking my dog at the dog run next to the convention center today and all said they’ve moving from downtown in the next 3 months or so, whenever their rent is up because they can’t stand all the ghetto drama and crap going on downtown anymore.

Downtown today reminded me of the 90s in downtown Houston as to how dystopian and ghetto it felt. Not good, not good at all.

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by photoLith

Have any of you noticed that downtown has gotten way more ghetto and crappy in the past year? It really sucks. I moved to Pittsburgh in 2013 and have gone downtown almost everyday since 2020 and it was getting better every year until the pointless rona shut downs. But in the past year and a half downtown has really degraded. I don’t go downtown as much anymore in the past year as I live in Carnegie now. But today I went downtown and I saw three ghetto fights from 1-3pm and just lots more hobos begging for money than usual. I talked to some people while walking my dog at the dog run next to the convention center today and all said they’ve moving from downtown in the next 3 months or so, whenever their rent is up because they can’t stand all the ghetto drama and crap going on downtown anymore.

Downtown today reminded me of the 90s in downtown Houston as to how dystopian and ghetto it felt. Not good, not good at all.

I'm sure you could have gotten the word "ghetto" in that post a few more times than that.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by photoLith

Have any of you noticed that downtown has gotten way more ghetto and crappy in the past year? It really sucks. I moved to Pittsburgh in 2013 and have gone downtown almost everyday since 2020 and it was getting better every year until the pointless rona shut downs. But in the past year and a half downtown has really degraded. I don’t go downtown as much anymore in the past year as I live in Carnegie now. But today I went downtown and I saw three ghetto fights from 1-3pm and just lots more hobos begging for money than usual. I talked to some people while walking my dog at the dog run next to the convention center today and all said they’ve moving from downtown in the next 3 months or so, whenever their rent is up because they can’t stand all the ghetto drama and crap going on downtown anymore. .

I think there's a bunch of different things going on here.

Regarding panhandling, I actually think the number has gone down. After all, there are less people in Downtown in general, which means less opportunity to collect money. Wouldn't you choose somewhere like Oakland to beg now instead? It's just that those who remain are competing for a much smaller proportion of the gainfully-employed population. So whereas before they might approach 5%-10% of the people passing by, they now approach everyone, which means you can easily get five people asking for money within a 10-minute walk. The real phase-shift on this though happened years ago, when Peduto was elected, and they stopped criminalizing panhandling downtown.

Regarding the actual homeless (who tend to be different from the panhandlers - many of whom have bus passes and collect SSI/live somewhere) there is a big difference. You actually see homeless people set up in alcoves of abandoned storefronts now, when they used to camp in out-of-the way places like the Mon Wharf or underneath underpasses. I don't think there's more though - they've just shifted where they sleep.

Then there's of course the third population - people who aren't begging or homeless, but just passing through. Downtown is a convenient place to stop off if you need a transfer, and the presence of a lot of social service agencies means there will be a lot of individuals not fully-employed who are just loitering for a bit waiting for an appointment or something.

In all cases, the problem will appear "bad" until there are more office workers again to mask the issues through dilution.

Originally Posted by photoLith

Downtown today reminded me of the 90s in downtown Houston as to how dystopian and ghetto it felt. Not good, not good at all.

As is the case in most cities, the population of panhandlers/homeless is pretty multicultural. There's even a homeless Asian guy I see a lot on Smithfield Street.

[BrianTH]

No one is really sure what is going to happen next for this sort of traditional CBD. I know that we are seriously wondering if we need to actually go back to a standard five day a week Downtown commute, which even with a relatively short commute really sucks up time (including just getting dressed and such), makes it harder to handle non-work stuff that comes up during the day, and so on.

I personally suspect the key is to rapidly evolve Downtown into a more and more desirable residential neighborhood, even for people who don't necessarily work Downtown (although it could be ideal for the sort of person who only needs to come into the office for occasional group meetings and other in-person tasks). Fortunately there are still more residential units in the pipeline, and plenty of opportunities to add many more (not least if you include the Lower Hill site).

And of course tourism too. Downtown remains a great base for visitors. Add a growing residential base that supports more and more of an evening scene and it will get even better.

So yeah, right now we are in what I hope is just a "local low" where the daytime office population is still way down, hotel occupancy is still not fully recovered, and residential has grown quickly but from a very low starting base. But in the longer history of Downtown, knock on wood it just ends up accelerating the shift of Downtown into a more well-rounded type of CBD.

Of course it is also possible it will spiral out of control, residential projects will dry up, and so on. But I think it is way too early to make that call, and I do personally think the fundamentals are strong enough to make it more likely it recovers.

Edit: The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership's annual "State of Downtown" reports are usually at least interesting reads. They are of course promotional and not just neutral assessments, but they do include lots of basic facts about things like projects completed and projects in the pipeline:

https://downtownpittsburgh.com/resea...e-of-downtown/

They define a "Greater Downtown" that includes the Golden Triangle but then also the Lower Hill, Uptown, South Shore, North Shore, and Strip District. Depending on where exactly you are talking about in areas like Uptown or the Strip District, the synergistic effects with Downtown specifically may be starting to fade. But I do think in general there is a mutually-reinforcing effect in the sense that more jobs, more amenities, and more residents in this Greater Downtown area tend to encourage more such development nearby.

Anyway, the Strip is definitely accelerating in importance, but there are still a lot of Downtown residential projects in the pipeline, and again if you include the Lower Hill it then becomes a LOT of projects.

So I would emphasize that as a really important public policy goal. The Penguins dragging their feet with the Lower Hill is bad in general, but we are now at a juncture where I would suggest we really need that area to be developed in a way that ties in nearby portions of the Hill, Uptown, and Downtown into a continuous, thriving, multi-use zone with a lot of residential units.

I just hope the powers that be use the contractual options available to them to actually require the Penguins to get moving, or release the development rights so someone actually in the business of development can use them. Rather than continually letting them slide past deadlines without consequence, as has been true to date.

[eschaton]

10/27 Art Commission agenda is online. Mostly small projects, but this is a nice redesign of the Belasco T station that I think should be highlighted. Most of the redesign is based upon handicapped accessibility, but it results in a much more professional-looking stop, which seems like it could easily be upgraded in the future to allow for payment for a ride prior to getting onboard.

Also, the 11/4 ZBA agenda is now online. Not a lot for that week - lots of fence variances. The biggest item by far is conversion of a historic church on Pius Street in South Side Slopes into multi-unit residential. This is the building in question. Looks like a Desmone project, and I count 67 units overall. NIMBYs have been an issue in the slopes, so I don't know how successful the request for a variance will be.

[eschaton]

IMHO the "worst case" scenario for the Golden Triangle is that the apartment units go somewhat more downscale. But this won't mean low-income housing, this will mean workforce housing, with lots of people who occupy service-sector jobs which are either downtown or a short transit ride away choose to locate there. Possibly a fair number of immigrants as well. And none of this would really be a bad thing. Hell, considering the costs for downtown apartment conversions are much lower (due to existing structures, no required parking units, etc.) you could continue to see a robust expansion in the number of units.

I don't see how the issues related to the homeless and panhandlers would be "solved" however regardless of the future success or failure of Downtown. First you can't solve them on a neighborhood/municipal level - you can only criminalize behavior and displace them elsewhere. But even the degree to which this can be done is limited by what I mentioned before - that social services are located downtown, and most bus routes terminate here.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by eschaton

IMHO the "worst case" scenario for the Golden Triangle is that the apartment units go somewhat more downscale. But this won't mean low-income housing, this will mean workforce housing, with lots of people who occupy service-sector jobs which are either downtown or a short transit ride away choose to locate there. Possibly a fair number of immigrants as well. And none of this would really be a bad thing. Hell, considering the costs for downtown apartment conversions are much lower (due to existing structures, no required parking units, etc.) you could continue to see a robust expansion in the number of units.

I'd love it if at least a large percentage of future Downtown apartments became a relatively affordable alternative to new units in the Strip, East End, and so on. Students, workforce, immigrants, domestic migrants--pack them in!

For that matter, I am glad they are doing that new homeless shelter on Second Avenue next to the Municipal Courts. Speaking of which . . .

I don't see how you the issues related to the homeless and panhandlers would be "solved" however regardless of the future success or failure of Downtown. First you can't solve them on a neighborhood/municipal level - you can only criminalize behavior and displace them elsewhere. But even the degree to which this can be done is limited by what I mentioned before - that social services are located downtown, and most bus routes terminate here.

Yeah, it makes it so much easier to help these populations if providers of relevant services are walkable (hence the logic of the shelter location). And not far behind that, walkable, or at least reliable quick transit accessible, jobs are also very helpful.

[Wave]

Bingo!

Originally Posted by brianth

meaning from a housing affordability standpoint, the ideal project doesn't take some new units which would otherwise be market-rate and turn them into affordable. Instead, it basically adds the affordable units to the market-rate unit count, which is then a win-win for housing affordability in that market.

[eschaton]

10/26 Planning Commission presentation is now online. Three new items on the agenda for next week - all of them rather small.

1. Demolition of structures on Halket Street by Walnut Capital. No, this is not related to their mega-project on the next block, as OPDC was briefed on this about a month prior. Basically they just seek to demolish three rowhouses which happen to be directly across from the site of the future office tower (which has now been more-or-less taken over by Pitt). The site is way too small to have an infill project all its own, so I have to guess that Walnut Capital is waiting until it can buy out the retail structures on the corner of Fifth and work on a new project - likely with UPMC, given the rest of the block is owned by them and somewhat underbuilt except for the far eastern edge.

2. Winchester Thurston is taking over a building at the corner of Centre and Morewood for its center for interdisciplinary learning. I had read about this deal going through some months ago. I do have to say I'm mildly disappointed, as this is one of the only commercial storefronts along a section of Centre dominated by apartments and institutional uses, meaning potential walkability is dropping, but it's not that far away from more active areas.

3. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is putting in for exterior repairs to the Benedum Center. This is mostly cosmetic repairs to the marquee.

I should also note there are major things going forward on the plan of lots - most notably a major lot redraw which prepares for the new Herron Avenue townhouse project at the foot of Polish Hill. Looks like maybe 27 new houses and the demolition of the old leather bar and three homes.

[BrianTH]

I've pretty much resigned myself to the Baum-Centre corridor (outside of the core of East Liberty) never being walkable. So much of it is already pretty densely developed in autocentric ways (not least the medical campuses, which are presumably not going anywhere), and there doesn't appear to be any push to change that. And in terms of density of use, at least this beats the crappy bank branch across the corner.

And to be fair, this was an EARLY autocentric area (hence the Ford assembly plant and lots of other such stuff), so in a way its development form is now part of history as well. Which I am fine eliminating in most cases, but if this corridor remains a sort of "living museum" of autocentric urban development indefinitely, oh well.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I've pretty much resigned myself to the Baum-Centre corridor (outside of the core of East Liberty) never being walkable. So much of it is already pretty densely developed in autocentric ways (not least the medical campuses, which are presumably not going anywhere), and there doesn't appear to be any push to change that. And in terms of density of use, at least this beats the crappy bank branch across the corner.

And to be fair, this was an EARLY autocentric area (hence the Ford assembly plant and lots of other such stuff), so in a way its development form is now part of history as well. Which I am fine eliminating in most cases, but if this corridor remains a sort of "living museum" of autocentric urban development indefinitely, oh well.

I think Baum is beyond hope, with not even a glimmer of a coherent street wall until you're almost all the way up to Negley. But I don't think Centre is that awful. Nodes like this and this could be built upon to make secondary business districts. But it's never going to be another Penn Avenue.

But yeah, this area was never really "urban" to begin with. If you look at the early GM Hopkins maps, the entire streets were originally lined with the same sort of large foursquares found throughout the surrounding areas, which only began being infilled in the 1920s - when we were moving away from urbanism.

Edit: I'm also resigned to 5th Avenue in Oakland never really being walkable. The entire north face is taken up by Pitt/UPMC institutional uses, and I think the south face will slowly get eaten away to make new towers. Thankfully Forbes is a pretty high-quality commercial street for several blocks - and it can be extended further in towards Downtown.