URA approves project for Highland and Wallace Buildings (East Liberty) (Pittsburgh: apartments, rental)

[BrianTH]

There have been a couple false starts on these properties recently, but hopefully this one is solid:

URA gives approval to East Liberty project - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_662338.html - broken link)

Some excerpts:

A team of developers and an architectural group want to transform the Highland Building on Highland Avenue into 112 apartments, and renovate the Wallace Building at Highland and Penn avenues into 10,000 square feet of retail space with 12 apartments above. . . . The city's Urban Redevelopment Authority on Thursday authorized Walnut Capital Management, Masaro Property and TKA Architects to design architectural plans, develop a budget and secure money for the anticipated $27 million project. The URA owns the buildings.

Todd Reidbord, a partner with Walnut Capital, said he would like to market the 650- to 1,000-square-foot units to young professionals. "We get a lot of calls from people who want to move next to Whole Foods or next to Target," Reidbord said. "Many of these people are new to Pittsburgh, and they don't see (neighborhood) boundaries." The Target is expected to be completed in fall, in Walnut Capital's nearby Bakery Square development.

I'm pleased to see Walnut Capital involved this time, because they know this market very well (they've been developing a lot of upscale rental properties in the East End, and also developed Bakery Square). The prior false starts were more driven by out-of-town developers, who wanted to do condos in one case and a hotel in the other. Those projects might have been fine, but I think the apartment market in particular really could use more units in this area. Indeed, as implied in this article, I could see East Liberty becoming an important gateway area for new young professionals (gateway in the sense that they might move on to buying in some more family-oriented parts of Pittsburgh at a later stage). The big thing for new young professionals is convenience, and between the Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Target, an ever-growing bar and restaurant scene, and of course an East Busway stop, East Liberty is going to be very convenient.

[BrianTH]

The Post-Gazette article:

East Liberty building site gets attention of developers for fifth time

It has a few more details, including an explanation of how the URA has agreed to build a parking structure, which is apparently crucial to the success of the development (it isn't hard to see why: parking is not exactly abundant right around there). The project also includes the former PNC Bank site.

Here is a little blog post on the Highland Building:

The Highland Building « Father Pitt

And a picture from there:

[subdivisions]

This is yet more great news for those of us living on the Penn corridor. Thanks for posting this link!

[groar]

that's great, i've always loved the highland building.

[Blackbeauty212]

I love how the PG artical states

"This totally supports that and goes in keeping with building a 24-hour district," he said....

I love that developers are targeting E Liberty as a 24-hr Neighborhood. From ghetto to 24-hr bustle that will make national headlines.

[BrianTH]

The Highland Building is indeed a gem. I'm also pleased they are apparently going to renovate, not level, the Wallace Building, as I believe was contemplated in some prior development plans. Unlike the Highland Building, the Wallace Building isn't on the National Register of Historic Places, but it is a cool older building which I would like to see restored.

[groar]

i can't picture the wallace building, what's in it at street level?

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by groar

i can't picture the wallace building, what's in it at street level?

It is a big three-story V-shaped (from above) building on the corner of Highland and Penn Circle S. On Penn Circle, it is across from Kelly's and such, and on Highland it is across from Abay (you can see where we go in East Liberty).

As for tenants, it used to have a big lighting store where we bought a few lamps and shades (sorry to talk about what used to be there--acquired Pittsburgh habit), but I'm not sure about now: it might well be vacant. It appears to me the street-level facade had been "updated" in a rather unfortunate way sometime in the past, but the upper-floor facades still look pretty good, and I assume the aforementioned plans to put in 10,000 sqft of first-floor retail would involve redoing the entire street-level (I'm thinking from looking at satellite shots that 10,000 sqft is pretty much the whole footprint). Incidentally, I'm guessing it should have about 20,000 sqft on the top two floors, so with 12 apartments you should be talking about around 1600 sqft places. So those could be pretty nice.

Finally, since we are on the subject, the former PNC Bank building included in the plan is on the other side of the Highland Building on the corner of Highland and Penn across from the church. That building is AWFUL--they tried to pretty it up with a mural on one corner, but it is just so obviously cheap, non-urban, and hostile to the world, and it occupies a key corner in the heart of East Liberty.

So, if they do a nice job of restoring the Wallace and Highland buildings, and replace the PNC building with something nice, then that whole stretch of Highland should be much nicer, and it is already pretty nice on the other side with the church complex and then the stretch of buildings including Abay and the Werner Building at Highland and Baum (with the Shadow Lounge in it). I think there is also some plan to convert that area into a European town-square-type space centered on the church, at which point it could become outrageously nice.


Edit: Oh, and a parking garage is going in there somewhere. Hopefully nowhere too intrusive, given my ambitions for the ultimate appearance of that section.

[AaronPGH]

Great news! Was one of these buildings supposed to be the Y lofts at one point?

[onwardandupward]

No - the Y lofts were to be in the old YMCA building, which is close to the Highland Building, but on the other side of the East Liberty Presb'y church on South Whitfield Street, right next to the (soon-to-be renovated) East Liberty Carnegie Library branch. South Whitfield is sort of parallel to South Highland.

I toured the Y loft model before the economy crashed. The building is gorgeous; high ceilings, great windows. Obviously the project is not moving forward at the present time. Hopefully it will pick up again with the original or another developer. I think there is serious interest in living in the main business area of East Liberty. I think it's a perfect location; you're only a block away from Shadyside, and easy walking distance to everything on the Centre Ave. stretch.