Peaks and Valley's of Downtown Residential (Pittsburgh, Penn: sales, rentals, loft)

[RockLobster]

Within a week the media was able to give attention to both ends of Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle residential movement. Positive downtown residential sales and the failure of the Golden Triangles largest housing plan to get off the ground.

Coverage of a annual 'open house walk' of available downtown residential property brought to light the positive numbers of units being sold downtown to date. Projects such as 151 First Side, The Carlyle , smaller Penn Avenue condo and loft projects and the rentals at the Encore have all shown solid sales.

Also mentioned was the age and professional mix of those buying downtown. To sum it up thus far, young professionals to senior citizens have been making the purchase in the Golden Triangle. And while most sales have been above the $300.000 mark, some lower cost housing options will be coming on line soon downtown.

Not keeping up with the positive residential news however was perhaps the project with the most upside. The 460 million dollar Cultural Trust river front plan. Rumored to have been in trouble for months, the Cultural Trust finally announced that the whole project was on the back burner at best. The plans for five residential towers from 17 to 30 floors each and numerous town home development would have been a major challenge for even a population-growth market such as Charlotte or Phoenix.

With 'Three PNC Plaza' Fairmont Hotel-Condo tower now going up and a very pricey South Side Works hotel-condo project about to break ground, I think it's a blessing the Cultural Trust's project didn't get off the ground. Time will tell if downtown can use more upscale living choices. But let's give it time. The Cultural Trust had the grandest idea but it was also the largest and slowest to get out of the block in construction. I don't think that's a bad thing at this point in time.

[Geeo]

From stories in both papers this morning, it sounds like there were a lot of twists and turns in the whole project. It is a massive and very ambitious undertaking, so they may be taking a second look on feasibility. Sounds like they may go ahead with the riverfront park first. The whole project was to be done in three phases over ten years. The design for the project was great, though, so I hope they are able to keep those elements included as they move forward. That part of downtown has gone through an enormous transformation in the last 20 years, and is quite a vibrant area now. I would have never envisioned it in the 80s, with all the porn shops and run-down buildings that were down there.

[BrianTH]

My understanding is there is still a lot of vacant upper-floor space in the existing Downtown buildings, so my instinct is to favor developing that over doing a lot of new building (not that you can't do both, but I think it is a better use of resources to encourage redevelopment of existing spaces).

[RockLobster]

Certainly Penn avenue has been the hub of activity outside of the larger buildings being constructed or revamped elsewhere downtown. And the Penn avenue lends toward smaller loft conversion, etc.. I will be very interested in how the new upper level condo's do that will be coming on line over the next year or so. That may tell us if and when the Cultural Trust will break ground.