Happenings in Pittsburgh!! (York, Carnegie, Milton: relocate, apartments, getaway)

[guylocke]

Tax help driving big rehab projects

Thursday's grand opening of Bedford Springs Resort marks a milestone in its $120 million rehabilitation, capping more than two decades of monumental efforts to revive the Bedford County mountain retreat.

It also represents one of the largest projects in Pennsylvania to take advantage of a federal tax credit program that has spurred nearly $300 million of investment in Pittsburgh the past decade.

Examples include Downtown's Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel, Heinz Lofts on the North Side and the Armstrong Cork Factory, a $60 million project with three luxury apartment buildings that opened in May in the Strip District.

More recently, an 18-month renovation that cost upwards of $15 million transformed the former Keystone Grocery warehouse and Try Street Terminal into Shannon Hall, a nine-story Downtown building with 140 apartments that opened in July for Art Institute of Pittsburgh students.

And just last week, Trek Development announced plans to convert Downtown's Century Building on Seventh Street into affordable apartments, aided by $2.3 million in federal historic rehabilitation tax credits.

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Strong mix of tenants changes neighborhood - Pittsburgh Business Times:

All the different foods that are offered in Oakland's mix of restaurants, cafes and kiosks would leave any menu as crowded as a Forbes Avenue parking lot just after the start of fall semester.

"It reflects the population," said Dave Gancy, a co-owner of Red Oak Cafe, which opened on Forbes last year. "There's a lot of students and doctors who come from all over the world. It's a real sophisticated crowd. It's still under-served. I think there's still a lot of opportunity."

Already the operators of restaurant kiosks at Carnegie Mellon University, Gancy and his partner Paul Huber took the opportunity to add to Oakland's culinary diversity with Red Oak. The restaurant offers various sandwiches, salads and soups, as well as unique items such as an oatmeal smoothie, which includes oatmeal cooked in tea, along with yogurt and other ingredients.

Longtime local restaurateurs see the neighborhood on an upswing, with chains and entrepreneurs thriving and increasing their ranks.

[guylocke]

This is the kind of stuff I like to see.

Pop City - Pittsburgh to host first of its kind national vacant properties conference

Pittsburgh will host the first national conference focusing on the potential assets of vacant properties.

Reclaiming Vacant Properties: Strategies for Rebuilding America’s Neighborhoods, takes place Sept. 24-25th at the Omni William Penn Downtown.

Targeting community development professionals, civic leaders, and local and state governments, the conference brings together practitioners, policymakers and citizens who will discuss effective strategies for preventing and revitalizing vacant properties, ways to inspire new leadership and how redevelopment can spur economic growth. Also expected to attend are public safety and real estate professionals, developers and urban planners.

More than 540 people have registered for the event, which will feature 30 breakout sessions and 120 panelists. Mobile workshops will highlight the Hill District, East Liberty and SouthSide Works.

“Pittsburgh offers the combination of circumstance and innovation. Like many cities, the question now is how can these properties be turned into assets, and what policies and systems need to be in place to do that. There are really great initiatives in Pennsylvania,” says Jennifer Leonard with Smart Growth America. “Pittsburgh has a lot to offer, but is also a place that can benefit from the leaders and best practices we bring. On the innovation front, Pittsburgh seems to have a good supply of people who are thinking creatively about the issue, are passionate about their city and want to see it move forward stronger than ever.”

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The slogan of this article is "An unlikely destination that’s somehow cooler than expected."

Time Out New York: Pittsburgh, PA

There’s really only one downside to choosing Pittsburgh for a getaway, and that’s the tedium that sets in somewhere around the 11th time you hear “Why?!?”

But the once-gritty steel town that was formerly an easy punch line for lazy comics’ riffs has reinvented itself, stoking its hip quotient to the point of serving as home to the sex-addled, appearance-conscious, partying denizens of ***** as Folk. After all, the Places Rated Almanac named it America’s most livable city—just this year. Sometimes publications do get it right.

With major carriers running round-trip fares under $100, most anyone with a passing interest in modernist aesthetics will find a visit worth the trip. On the 20-mile drive from the airport, verdant, hillside neighborhoods give way to vistas opening to the city’s renowned three rivers: Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio. The landscape evokes Paris, Seattle maybe, or even Stockholm.

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Not surprisingly, another top ranking for our outdoor enthusiasts!

City becoming destination for outdoors enthusiasts - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Before Pittsburgh was named as the "Most Livable City" by Places Rated Almanac, it was declared the top urban adventure city in the country by National Geographic Adventure magazine.

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Sale of six Marriott-branded hotels indicates market strength - Pittsburgh Business Times:

If there's any doubt about the strength of Pittsburgh's hotel market, Keith McGraw can point to the $105 million that six of Concord Hospitality Enterprises Co.'s area hotels fetched last week as part of a major portfolio deal.

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[guylocke]

This Bakery Square project is going to be really fantastic. It's not part of this particular write-up, but I've seen the renderings, and it's stunning.

Part of ex-Nabisco plant razed - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

A portion of the former Nabisco plant in East Liberty has been demolished as Walnut Capital Partners, the new owner, proceeds with plans to develop to site into Bakery Square, a $113 million "green" project housing both offices and retailers.

"We want to join other developers in East Liberty in promoting green buildings that are more innovative and environmentally friendly to help make East Liberty a showcase of LEED-certified buildings," said Anthony Dolan, a partner in the Shadyside-based development company.

The U.S. Green Building Council must approve LEED certification (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design) for the project along Penn Avenue.

"We will use solar energy, wind energy and green roofs to make the complex environmentally friendly," Dolan said.

Plans include renovation to provide space for 260,000 square feet of office space, and new construction to house other uses. Renovation will probably occur first to accommodate office tenants, Dolan said.

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Geeze, this Flexcar stuff has been in the news a lot recently, maybe I should check it out.

Flexcar pleased by region's speedy acceptance of car sharing

As with any company rolling into a new market, Flexcar, the service that lets its subscribers rent cars by the hour, encountered a few bumps upon entering Pittsburgh. Politicians argued over whether the city government was saving money through its $10,000 Flexcar arrangement. A TV news crew found that Flexcar had failed to acquire state inspection and registration stickers for some of its Pittsburgh fleet.

But five months after its May debut in Pittsburgh, when it had 19 cars scattered around Downtown and Oakland, Flexcar is flourishing. Downtown companies, workers and residents seem to have taken a shine to the idea of car-sharing instead of -- or as a complement to -- car-owning.

By the end of this month, there will be 55 cars in service here, including, for the first time, cars in Shadyside. That's faster than Flexcar Inc. grew in Seattle, said spokesman John Williams. "It took Flexcar not a number of months, but a number of years, to get to even 40 cars" in Seattle, where the company is based.

[guylocke]

Here is more news on the Century Building being converted into mix-income living. This is just one of about half a dozen buildings like it. Picture included if you aren't sure which building it is!

Pop City - $16M Century Building set to bring 60 rental units to Downtown Pittsburgh

Financing is complete for Downtown’s first mixed-income residential development. Located at 137 Seventh St., the $16 million Century Building has been approved for $515,155 in Affordable Housing Tax Credits from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.

The 78,000 square-foot, 12-story property will feature 60 units, including 565 square-foot loft studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments ranging in size from 700 to 1,020 square feet. Rents will range from $450 to $1,250 per month, depending on income level.

“What the Cultural Trust has done in the last 10 years has set the stage for this. We did 900 Penn Avenue and then Penn Garrison and that was all part of it. We saw where the greatest need was,” says William Gatti with TREK Development Group, who purchased the building for $3 million. “It was still theoretical until the building came along. It’s very difficult to find the right building Downtown for residential. It’s about price, location and physical make-up. This building had all of the ingredients and a motivated seller.”

[beemajabee]

Hey boylocke, do you feel lonely here? Just figured I'd stop by and tell you I've read your posts...