Apt's at Federal Cold Storage in Strip (Pittsburgh, Lawrenceville: leasing, lofts)

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by eschaton

So it's really about leveling the scale and letting things develop organically.

I'd rather the city allowed CD members to design what should happen to the waterfront property near the strip district. They could do it like a jury. Lock us in a conference room and not let us out until we reach a full consensus. Collectively we have a better grasp on what the city needs. The end result would be awesome.

Originally Posted by pman

exactly and if most people downtown have money then the last thing taxpayers should do is subsidize parking.

Is this project subsidized?

[pman]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I'd rather the city allowed CD members to design what should happen to the waterfront property near the strip district. They could do it like a jury. Lock us in a conference room and not let us out until we reach a full consensus. Collectively we have a better grasp on what the city needs. The end result would be awesome.


Is this project subsidized?

you were talking about downtown and most parkong downtown is subsidized.

Originally Posted by UKyank

And they aren't, so I guess the market can't handle them.

actually, since zoning dictates, you don't know that

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by pman

you were talking about downtown and most parkong downtown is subsidized.

I consider the strip to be downtown. This developer wants parking.

Isn't that what this thread is about? An upscale apartment building downtown that has parking?

[pman]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I consider the strip to be downtown. This building is in the strip. This developer wants parking.

Isn't that what this thread is about? An upscale apartment building downtown that has parking?

it's in the strip, not downtown. the developer is required to have parking.
I get it, you can't imagine life without two cars.

Originally Posted by Hopes

Parking isn't suburban. If today's urban planning involves less parking to force people to use more public transportation, they're going to learn a few decades from now that will be a failed redevelopment too. Cities need both parking and public transportation. What downtown needs is more affordable housing for all income ranges. The lower and middle income ranges are more likely to go without cars. Unfortunately, most of the housing downtown is expensive. Most people with money have cars because they can afford to have them, and they will be looking for urban housing that has parking.

ACTUALLY, yes, parking in the quantities you talk about IS suburban. cities need both parking an transit but this city is too heavy on parking and too light on transit. ample parking is simply not part of a healthy city. subsidized housing downtown isn't what's needed.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by pman

it's in the strip, not downtown. the developer is required to have parking.
I get it, you can't imagine life without two cars.

Why do you have to be so difficult? It's like going in circles with you. This rent is the upper end for Pittsburgh. That means that people who want to rent there are likely to have cars. That's why I was sharing the parking amenities of upscale condo buildings. They aren't subsidized. It sounds like you've never been in an upscale building before because you don't know what features prospective renters/owners expect for that type of building. Thankfully, this developer understands his target market.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by pman

ACTUALLY, yes, parking in the quantities you talk about IS suburban.

That's not true. Many of Pittsburgh's neighborhoods have ample parking for single family homes. The upscale neighborhoods do. Shadyside. Point Breeze. Squirrel Hill. The wealthy are living there because those properties meet their criteria for living, which includes parking for multiple cars. And the condos for the wealthy also have ample parking too. Pittsburgh isn't Manhattan.

[sealie]

So far as the comparison to Shadyside goes, I challenge anyone to find a luxury Shadyside apartment that doesn't have parking. I took a quick look online and I can't do it. Valet, in some cases. Two spaces, in most cases. So Hopes is right, having no parking is like having Formica countertops at this price point.

[SteelCityRising]

My partner and I live in Polish Hill. We each own a vehicle. My partner can (and has) walked to work on the North Shore before. I used to ditch my car and walk to work in Oakland. I now need my car as "work equipment". We're directly on the 54 line (the bus stops in front of our rowhome), which will take us to either the heart of the North Side or the South Side via Oakland. We can walk to take the East Busway either Downtown or to other parts of the East End (I'm still going by popular definition of Polish Hill being in the East End and not a sub-neighborhood of Downtown). Buses run along Bigelow Boulevard (one would even take us to Penn Hills!)

I've walked from Polish Hill to Millvale, Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, Shadyside, Oakland, South Side, Station Square, Chateau, Downtown, the Strip District, Friendship, and the South Shore in less than an hour. Nevertheless, it seems like just about everyone in our neighborhood owns a vehicle. Like Lawrenceville we've also noticed on-street parking becoming much tighter over the past few years as our population has declined yet simultaneously become younger and wealthier than the largely car-free elderly "homesteaders" we're replacing as they die off. While we're a long walk or reasonable bus ride from everything the topography here makes owning a car much more desirable for running errands. For example, our neighborhood lacks a laundromat. I've seen neighbors grudgingly squeezing onto buses with detergent and laundry baskets in tow. That can't be pleasant. Walking to the Strip District for some fresh produce in the summer is fabulous. Walking back up the hill when the winter's wind is biting at you is not fun. As others have noted "job sprawl" has been worsening here. Our upstairs neighbor works in the suburbs (and drives her car there). Many of our other neighbors also work in the 'burbs. Some used to live in the suburbs, still work there, and recently moved into the city to be nearer to stuff for younger people (sorry, Cranberry!).

pman, I respect your contributions, but the vast majority of Pittsburgh is by no means at the density (yet) of Dupont Circle, Beacon Hill, Rittenhouse Square, Williamsburg, etc. Transit in Pittsburgh still largely revolves around "Hey! We have these brand new things called buses! You can take them Downtown, and then you can transfer onto another one to get you where you really want to go for just $5 round-trip per person!" Taxis are a joke here. Until Pittsburgh invests more heavily in BRT, light rail, and trolleys/streetcars most of we urban dwellers will continue to prefer to own our own vehicles. Developers will continue to account for that.

[markson33]

I agree that Pittsburgh simply does not have the mass transit in place to allow for developments without ample parking. We are still a city that is reliant on cars and I think it only makes sense that the developers of the Wholey building would provide the parking that their tenants want.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by deathegg88

Actually, Wholeys used the entire building! (this is back in the early to mid 1990's) I'm rather surprised that they're not there anymore. I know from experience that the building is going to take TONS of work to get it habitable; it's in Really bad shape.

Well, maybe it's a technicality. What happened is, Wholey sold off the wholesale division in 2007. See this article I posted earlier from 2008, which describes the idea of making condos out of the building: Condos planned at Wholey building - Pittsburgh Business Times Apparently at that time wholesale was still operating there (under the new ownership) so I might be wrong about it being actually empty. Although I would technically be correct that Wholey's is not in there. (And the retail shop hasn't been in there in at least 10 years, if it ever was. The shop is down much further.)

That article does get into how difficult it would be to transition. That doesn't actually change with it being apartments vs condos. It still has 3ft thick walls and so on. It'll be nice and quiet and easy to heat/cool.