The Peduto administration supports some development in the city, stops other plans. A look at what’s up and down in building – NEXTpittsburgh

The City Planning Commission, meanwhile, has thwarted or postponed action on three major commercial development proposals (including Troianis) since July. And the board of the citysUrban Redevelopment Authority[URA] hasnt reviewed a new development proposal of more than $20 million in value since May, when it approved an incremental step toward thestill-controversial redevelopmentof the former Civic Arena site.

Commercial development in the city this year has been not as much as Id like, said Tom Melcher, business manager to the Pittsburgh Regional Building Trades Council, an umbrella organization of construction unions. He pointed to the still-quiet arena site as an example, saying, Theres a lot of road blocks. A lot of road blocks.

Theres no sign of a slowdown in housing construction.

Greg Flisram, executive director of the citysURA, noted that the state recently awarded low-income housing tax credits to six proposals within the city, each of which will exceed $10 million in investment.

Thats consistent with Pedutos housing-first development priorities. We need to build more affordable housing, we need to build more subsidized housing, and we need to build more market-rate housing, the mayor said, while cheering the Forte project.

U.S. Census Bureau data shows that through August of this year, the Pittsburgh metropolitan area saw 81% as many new housing units approved as it did all of last year. That pace is better than those of metro Cincinnati, Baltimore, Cleveland, Toledo, Buffalo, Philadelphia or Harrisburg. (Columbus, Ohio, has performed better than Pittsburgh on housing permits, but even that city has seen an 18% drop in commercial building applications.)

The prognosis for the office-and-tech building boom in the city, though, may be darker.

Applications for commercial building permits were down 29% through September of this year versus the same period in 2019. (Some, but not all, of that drop is likely attributable to procedural changes at the citys Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections, which in May 2019 began accepting amended applications where it would previously have demanded new applications, creating duplicate permits.)

[T]he commercial real estate industry is in a period of adjustment, said Flisram. COVID-19, he said, is especially drivinguncertainty regarding office development, as developers and architects weigh the size and layout of the post-pandemic workplace. People are trying to figure out whether certain trends that they see happening now, on an interim basis, get locked in and become kind of imprinted and permanent, or whether they are kind of temporary solutions, or stopgaps.

Perhaps as a result, he has seen fewer large, new projects come before his agency, compared to earlier in the year.

Peduto said theres plenty of building coming, noting that the Penguins development team has said that theyre still going to begin construction in the first quarter of next year on the arena site. An estimated $528 million development in the Chateau neighborhood, called Esplanade, has slowed but not stopped while Millcraft Investments is working with the neighbors before seeking state aid, he added.

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto speaks at the groundbreaking of the planned Forte Condos in the Strip District. Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource.

The mayor blamed the dip on permit applications on the spring shutdown and said there was reason to hope that it will be short term. I look at it with the major developments and how many of them have been stalled or canceled. We havent had any canceled.

Developer JMC Holdings wants to build a 20-story office building in the 1500 block of Penn Avenue. It won the endorsement (with reservations) of the community group Strip District Neighbors.

There was definitely concern about the design and size, said Chris Watts, chair of the Strip groups community development committee. But the proposal struck the group as an improvement over the empty, concrete Wholey Building that it would replace. We wanted to see that property be a contributing property and felt that there were some elements that would benefit the community.

Last month, though, the Peduto-appointedCity Planning Commissionvoted down the proposal after commissioners called it a gigantic barrier and a Lego office building. JMC has the option of returning with a new concept.

A rendering of a proposed Strip District office tower, submitted to the City Planning Commission on behalf of developer JMC Holdings, on Sept. 15, 2020 (screenshot).

Two weeks later, the commission postponed its vote on developer George Mongells proposed Uptown Tech project, a conversion of a former industrial laundry building along the Boulevard of the Allies into a technology workshop and office. Commissioners acceded to the wishes of the Hill District Community Development Corp. whose officers said the developer had not specified the amount of minority- and women-owned business involvement in the construction. The commission could vote on Oct. 13.

Neither Mongell nor JMC Holdings partner Matt Cassin responded to PublicSources emails and calls. Commission Chair Christine Mondor declined to comment, saying she could not talk about matters still before her panel, and City Planning Director Andrew Dash did not agree to an interview.

Peduto backed the commissions decisions. In Uptown, he said, commissioners want to know specifically that, in development in predominantly Black neighborhoods, there are Black contractors and women contractors that are involved in it. Regarding the Strip, he said: We dont want to see new developments overtake the historic character of a neighborhood, and the Planning Commission has made it very clear to the developer that this design overtakes the neighborhood.

He also supported the commissions July decision to bar Troianis family from demolishing the Froggys building and several adjacent addresses.

That is a historic district of Downtown, the mayor said, and it sets a bad precedent when you buy buildings, dont maintain them, then declare them not able to be saved.

The Troiani family started buying Firstside parcels about 30 years ago and owns 13 of them, said Michael Troiani. The family took steps to repair and lease the long-vacant buildings but couldnt find interested tenants. Meanwhile, several of the buildings have become a card castle, ready to tumble, he said.

Thats where the structure is joined, and its stressed out, he said, pointing to one of numerous interior walls in which large cracks, patched with mismatched mortar, are evident. This has had 100-plus years of Band-Aids on this structure.

Michael (right) and Nicholas (left) Troiani stand in one of their buildings in Downtown Pittsburghs Firstside district. They say the buildings are held together with 100-plus years of Band-Aids. Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource.

He wants to replace the boarded-up buildings with a tower including about 150 apartments and 190,000 square feet of office space. But because the buildings are in a historic district, he needs the City Planning Commissions nod before swinging the wrecking ball.

Troiani provided a timeline showing two years of meetings with neighbors, Downtown groups, historic preservationists and city officials. He won the approval of the Downtown Community Development Corp., whose Executive Director John Valentine told PublicSource: If you get development with that type of building, youre looking at jobs, youre looking at vibrancy in an area that needs that.

Architect Ken Doyno discusses plans for a 385-foot office tower on Troiani family property in Downtowns Firstside Historic District during a City Planning Commission meeting held by Zoom on June 16, 2020 (screenshot).

In June and July, though, historic preservationists opposing the demolition wrote to the commission and then spoke at its July 14 meeting.

We think we can save the buildings, or part of the buildings, Mr. Troiani can have a new building [and] we can live congenially, said Arthur Ziegler, president emeritus of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, during the commissions July 14 meeting.

Troianis development team said the buildings couldnt be preserved. The commission then voted not to allow demolition, while inviting Troiani to return with a new, complete plan for the site.

The Troiani family appealed the commissions decision to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, where briefs are due in November. The family argues that while their buildings are within the National Register of Historic Places Firstside Historic District, they are not historically significant structures. Restoring the crumbling brick walls wouldnt be economically or physically feasible, they add.

If the commission had approved demolition, Troiani said, I would be marketing the opportunity to bring a tenant in from outside of Pittsburgh to anchor a building of about 190,000 square feet in the Golden Triangle.

Instead? I have more attorneys than I ever wanted to have in my life.

PublicSource

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The Peduto administration supports some development in the city, stops other plans. A look at what's up and down in building - NEXTpittsburgh