Wholey Building may become condos (Pittsburgh, Penn: fit in, for sale, real estate) - Pennsylvania (PA) - City-Data Forum

nuwaver88 · 02-01-2010, 10:16 PM

BrianTH · 02-02-2010, 05:20 AM

Well, that would be cool:

http://www.desmone.com/content/ID390141d1_b918_4dfd_b2d6_76b61893bb6f_Image2.jpg (broken link)

That building has a big visual presence as you are coming into the Strip from Downtown or across the 16th Street Bridge, and a nice redevelopment would help create a more inviting approach from those directions.

Now if only we could do something about the sea of parking lots on either side of the Veterans Bridge . . .

greg42 · 02-02-2010, 06:52 AM

Aw, I was hoping for some significant progress news. The fact that it was sold and the new owners intended to do condos is pretty old. I'll dig up the original story. The rendering of the exterior is new to me; I would guess cladding. That's a cold storage building as most know. Imagine the silence from exterior noise with the 3 foot thick walls! Veterans and 16th Street bridges and traffic in the Strip shouldn't really be a noise problem....

Probably be out of my price range though. I still miss the guys who were going to develop the building up at about 12th and Penn.

Copanut · 02-02-2010, 07:04 AM

Living that close to Lidia's would be great, IMHO, one of the best restaurants around. As much as I like condo living, not enough green areas for me. But, I hope it works, the City needs more and more tax revenue, and I'm sure the starting prices of those condos will be high.

greg42 · 02-02-2010, 07:36 AM

Here is original story from July 2008:

Condos planned at Wholey building - Pittsburgh Business Times:

Also one from August which mentions the Wholey project but was mainly about the other one, which is dead at the moment (complete with for sale sign on building):

More Strip lofts in the works - Pittsburgh Business Times:

Such is the fate of some of these projects announced just before the economy really turned south. Earlier stuff mainly managed to go ahead, but these guys with no track record apparently lost their financing. That second article is already mentioning the tight credit market, in fact. Quite probably that estimate for redeveloping the building was low as well, although it would have been much smaller in scale than the other one.

Sampson Morris has no mention of the Wholey project on their own site. They've never done a residential project. So this is not necessarily a good sign either, depending upon when that artwork from Desmone was posted. It does say "is working with", but we can only place validity there if we know they are good at tending their web site.

greg42 · 02-02-2010, 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Copanut

Living that close to Lidia's would be great, IMHO, one of the best restaurants around. As much as I like condo living, not enough green areas for me. But, I hope it works, the City needs more and more tax revenue, and I'm sure the starting prices of those condos will be high.

Heh, the Strip is in the 10-year tax abatement area. It'll be a while before there is new tax revenue from that stuff. Tis very true, though, that the Strip itself has no particularly accessible green from a short walk (a longer walk yes, but not really a short one).

Copanut · 02-02-2010, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greg42

Heh, the Strip is in the 10-year tax abatement area. It'll be a while before there is new tax revenue from that stuff. Tis very true, though, that the Strip itself has no particularly accessible green from a short walk (a longer walk yes, but not really a short one).

I've never been a big fan of tax abatements, what taxes are involved?

robrobrob · 02-02-2010, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Now if only we could do something about the sea of parking lots on either side of the Veterans Bridge . . .

When PNC Park was built I thought we made a mistake and should of put it in the Strip because I thought it would have been easier for development to spin off. Think about how much more attractive the Strip would be with a ballpark there. I think PNC Park has a great setting but really hasn't done much for the "North Shore". Heinz Field has done even less. If you think about it, the North Shore is some of the best real estate in the city, riverfront without a highway or traintrack, unheard of in Pittsburgh.

I do have high hopes for the new arena and Uptown.

BrianTH · 02-02-2010, 08:56 AM

Some random comments:

--I'd love to see the AEC building converted to condos, but I'm not sure I would trust that group with my money in this environment either. Hopefully, however, we see a bunch of credible projects started/restarted in the next couple years as financing becomes available again.

--In my view a baseball stadium would have been too big to fit into the space where Downtown and the Strip meets, and would have effectively cut the rest of the Strip off from Downtown. What I think that area needs is actually an integration of the Strip with Downtown, and that requires a bunch of more human-scale projects, parks, and so forth, as opposed to something colossal like a baseball stadium. Oh, and a streetcar/trolley line running up the Strip from Downtown would be a good idea.

--The proper development of the North Shore is an interesting topic. In an ideal world we would have never torn apart the City of Allegheny and we could treat that area like the South Side. But given where we were starting, I don't really see that area effectively competing with lots of other areas in the City, including the Strip and Downtown itself, when it comes to developing new residential units. Meanwhile, things like stadiums and casinos and office parks aren't necessarily conducive to developing residential areas, so I actually think it is handy we have a convenient place to concentrate that stuff while focusing on other areas for new residential.

greg42 · 02-02-2010, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Copanut

I've never been a big fan of tax abatements, what taxes are involved?

City and school district property taxes. I forgot, though, it only exempts the first $250k of new value, so assessments above that will accrue some tax right away. The idea was to incentivize the renovation of old buildings into new condos. Downtown, the Strip and some other areas in town fall into this plan, and there are some other plans out there too. See Otto Milk Condos for info and links to more detailed info.

The simplest answer for these purposes though is that the first $250k of the value of each new condo is exempt from city and school district of Pittsburgh property taxes for 10 years.