Babyland (Penn And Negley) New development? (Pittsburgh, Liberty: to rent, houses, school)

[selltheburgh]

Originally Posted by eschaton

The building used to be owned by Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation and was put up for sale, meaning Quiet Storm had to leave. Originally Schmidts (sp?) Old World Deli was going to buy the building and open up a second branch downstairs. But the deal fell through and some other buyer snagged the building. They haven't done anything with the space since.

It was owned by Friendship Develoment Associates. They went bankrupt because of the glass lofts going over budget. They felt that their mission of restoring old victorians and turning the neighborhood housing market around succeeded and the private market could take over.

They had to sell off their assets. They sold all of the glass lofts. They sold the auto place on Penn near Mathilda (Action housing bought it). They sold the Quiet Storm and the houses and lots next to it to E Properties. He's building for sale houses on the lots and has the QS for rent as a restaurant.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by selltheburgh

It was owned by Friendship Develoment Associates. They went bankrupt because of the glass lofts going over budget. They felt that their mission of restoring old victorians and turning the neighborhood housing market around succeeded and the private market could take over.

They had to sell off their assets. They sold all of the glass lofts. They sold the auto place on Penn near Mathilda (Action housing bought it). They sold the Quiet Storm and the houses and lots next to it to E Properties. He's building for sale houses on the lots and has the QS for rent as a restaurant.

Good stuff! Love this insider information. It's people like you that keep me coming to this forum!

[eschaton]

Hrrm...a walkable auto supply store...there's an idea.

More seriously, I'm not sure this is a great neighborhood asset. People driving through the area may stop, but a relatively high (compared to the city as a whole) proportion of people around those parts are low income and don't have access to a car anyway.

The best place for auto-focused stores in the area is Washington Boulevard.

[Gee Whiz]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

^^ So Salt of the Earth and Verde are also bad locations for restaurants as well? Your logic isn't very sound. They are literally across the street and half a block away. It's the perfect spot to piggyback off of the success of the other businesses in that corridor.

The problem with putting a brand new Autozone in there to "temporarily" get rid of an "eyesore" (a quite nice older building that will be razed?), is that you are then delaying anything else replacing it by at LEAST 10 years. Autozone isn't going to build a brand new store just to tear it down and close it three years later.

Waiting 1-2 more years for something of quality that will rehab that building and help that corner is a far better idea than ****ing that corner up for 10+ years with a suburban style parking lot.

Granted, Salt of the Earth and Verde are close, but they are not exactly in the heart of the business district either. A beer distributor and muffler shop are closer. Plus those two restaurants have a higher degree of walkability since they are closer to the neighborhoods and there is some parking on the street. In addition, it does not have to be all about restaurants and coffee houses and record shops and book stores, but sometimes places with necessities need to move in to give a neighborhood the proper balance despite how unsightly the architecture may be of a CVS or an AutoZone.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Hrrm...a walkable auto supply store...there's an idea.

More seriously, I'm not sure this is a great neighborhood asset. People driving through the area may stop, but a relatively high (compared to the city as a whole) proportion of people around those parts are low income and don't have access to a car anyway.

The best place for auto-focused stores in the area is Washington Boulevard.

Yeah. Washington Boulevard is pretty much always going to be destined to be an auto-dependent corridor with businesses that wouldn't necessarily thrive in crowded neighborhoods (light industry/manufacturing, dog kennels, the fire department training site, car washes, gas stations, etc.) An AutoZone would make much more sense to be somewhere near the corner of Negley Run & Washington Boulevards.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by selltheburgh

It was owned by Friendship Develoment Associates. They went bankrupt because of the glass lofts going over budget. They felt that their mission of restoring old victorians and turning the neighborhood housing market around succeeded and the private market could take over.

They had to sell off their assets. They sold all of the glass lofts. They sold the auto place on Penn near Mathilda (Action housing bought it). They sold the Quiet Storm and the houses and lots next to it to E Properties. He's building for sale houses on the lots and has the QS for rent as a restaurant.

I stand corrected about the former ownership.

I knew about the new housing going in on the vacant lots near the Quiet Storm. Haven't seen much activity since they were leveled, but the design looks cool with the pedestrian path down the middle of the property and the townhouses facing it.

What do you mean with your last sentence? That he's put up the space for rent again but no one has taken him up on it?

[selltheburgh]

Originally Posted by AaronPGH

Side note: I may be one of the few, but I'd love to see Penn Plaza rehabbed and completely re-done instead of destroyed. It's a strangely interesting building with a lot of nice green space between buildings and opportunities for balconies and patios. I'd kill to see a big design competition done for creative rehab ideas (rather than razing). Pretty sure we'd get some amazing plans.

I agree with this. Maybe put some small retail buildings abutting the sidewalk in the future as well:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4632...Hvo1mUOVcA!2e0

[selltheburgh]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I stand corrected about the former ownership.

I knew about the new housing going in on the vacant lots near the Quiet Storm. Haven't seen much activity since they were leveled, but the design looks cool with the pedestrian path down the middle of the property and the townhouses facing it.

What do you mean with your last sentence? That he's put up the space for rent again but no one has taken him up on it?

There's a commercial for rent sign on the former QS building.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Gee Whiz

despite how unsightly the architecture may be of a CVS or an AutoZone.

Why does the architecture have to be unsightly, though, is my question? I personally think CVS did a bang-up job with their new location at Centre & North Craig in North Oakland, and future urban locations for chain drugstores should look to this as an example. The parking lot exits out primarily onto Melwood Avenue, too, which is relatively low-traffic, which helps to avoid contributing to greater congestion on Centre Avenue.

A pretty bad idea was the CVS at Wilkins & Wightman in Squirrel Hill. That narrow parking lot in FRONT of the building, with only limited ingress/egress from Wilkins, has caused many near-accidents, and I've seen more than one cyclist and pedestrian almost get clipped by elderly people trying to back out onto Wilkins. That's a prime example of a situation where the store should have been pushed up against the sidewalk on Wilkins with room for one row of vehicle parking in the rear, accessible from less-traveled Wightman. I suppose I just see a similarly-situated AutoZone causing similar difficulties for pedestrians/cyclists at Penn & Negley.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by doo dah

The Eat'n Park closed in 2000. If you don't know what has changed in Garfield since then, I don't know what to tell you.

Plenty has changed since 2000, but nothing that would indicate that a low-brow restaurant like Eat n Park would suddenly be able to thrive there.


The number of yuppie types seeking haute cuisine have increased, but not the number of working class who are the base of support for the E n P chain.