Former Allegheny County Health Department building in Oakland to be replaced with apartments

The former Allegheny County Health Department building in Oakland is coming down and a new retail and apartment development is going up.

City planning commission members unanimously approved plans Tuesday to demolish the health department building and to erect a 550,000-square-foot complex that will include 389 apartments and street-level retail space on Forbes and Fifth avenues.

Ambling University Development Group, the Georgia-based developer hired to undertake the project for property owner MWK Forbes LLC, hopes to begin construction of the 13-story building early next year with completion targeted for the end of 2016. Demolition of the health department building is expected to start next month.

The new building is part of a broader development that will include a 138-room hotel that is to be built on two adjacent lots. Two houses on those lots will be razed, with the commissions consent Tuesday.

Skyvue, as the residential tower will be called, will be built between Craft Avenue and Halket Street in Oakland. The complex will include a 286-space parking garage with another 70 set aside for future development.

Approval came despite concern about whether the amount of parking would be adequate given the 389 apartments to be built. Some also worried about the viability of the retail on Fifth, as it will be squeezed into a very tight section of sidewalk.

Ambling CEO Ryan Holmes said the parking should be enough. He said that in projects in Atlanta and Virginia only about 35 to 60 percent of the parking spaces set aside as part of residential projects were actually leased.

Its a concern everywhere you go. Parkings the No. 1 issue. We address it, obviously. The cities are asking for less and less parking. The neighborhoods are wanting more and more parking because they dont have any parking. Its kind of a double-edged sword, he said.

The development won the backing of the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation. Wanda Wilson, executive director, said it is consistent with the groups neighborhood plan and could have a positive impact on the neighborhoods tight housing market.

But she added that such a large-scale project required careful planning to avoid negative impacts to nearby residents. She urged the developer to try to find ways to discourage apartment dwellers and visitors from parking on nearby residential streets.

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Former Allegheny County Health Department building in Oakland to be replaced with apartments