Gainey touts two new conversion fund outlays with focus on affordable housing

The administration of Mayor Ed Gainey and the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh are poised to push out $4.85 million in its Pittsburgh Downtown Conversion Program fund on two projects, both of which emphasize an affordable housing component.

Detailed in the agenda for Thursday's April meeting of the URA, the first is a proposal to revise and quadruple a previous $600,000 conversion fund loan to Hullett Properties for the 19th century-built Triangle Building at Liberty and Smithfield, a project originally budgeted to cost $12.4 million for which the construction process revealed more expensive infrastructure issues to overcome.



The URA agenda now calls for a $2.4 million loan, the terms of which are forgivable, to Hullet to help the developer overcome more than $2 million in cost overruns for the Triangle Building conversion, slated to generate 15 apartments in the five floors above the street level retail, with eight of the apartments rented at rates that meet standards of affordability...Read More

TWG affiliate closes on property for 200+ unit apartment project on Hamilton Avenue in Larimer

An Indianapolis developer has taken a key step toward moving forward with a new apartment project on Hamilton Avenue, proposing to bring the kind of new multifamily communities to Larimer now common in neighboring East Liberty.

Nearly a year after it sought zoning changes to allow such a project, an affiliate of TWG Development has bought the 1.8-acre site at 6465 Hamilton Ave., a vacated warehouse at a busy juncture near East Liberty Boulevard and Frankstown Road between Bakery Square and the Kingsley Center.



Deed transfer records recently recorded with Allegheny County indicate TWG East End LLC closed on buying the 6465 Hamilton Ave. site in late March, paying more than $1 million for the property. The seller was a firm called Highway Equipment Co. for a long unused warehouse building...Read More

212 weeks later, Giant Eagle celebrates back to office at new headquarters in Cranberry Woods

In case anybody asks how long it's been since Giant Eagle operated out of a headquarters office, CEO Bill Artman is counting.

"It's been 212 weeks since we've had a corporate headquarters at Giant Eagle," said Artman at a ribbon cutting celebration for the company's new Cranberry Woods office. "212 weeks is a long time."



In what's likely his most conspicuous leadership move as CEO after taking over in the role last year, Artman and company celebrated the new headquarters at 700 Cranberry Woods, a former FedEx office the grocer opted for after leaving behind its former headquarters buildings in O'Hara Township...Read More

Penguins to advance music venue over parking garage at former Civic Arena site

The Pittsburgh Penguins are doing the development equivalent of a line change at the former Civic Arena site.

They have rearranged plans for a $110 million live music venue and parking garage complex on the land, with the music venue now to be the first off the bench. At one time the hockey team had hoped to start the 910-space garage first.



But Kevin Acklin, the Penguins president of business operations, said that user demand for structured parking “is still uncertain post-pandemic, and interest rates and construction costs for the garage remain at near historic highs.”...Read More

A ‘perfect fit’: Edgar Snyder law firm leaving Downtown for the North Shore

A well-known law firm is joining the movement out of Downtown. But it’s not going far.

Edgar Snyder and Associates is leaving its home in U.S. Steel Tower on Grant Street and has signed a lease to relocate to the Cascade, the former Equitable Resources building at 225 North Shore Drive near PNC Park on the North Shore.



The law firm will be taking 21,400 square feet in the six-story waterfront building, which is owned by the NAI Burns Scalo real estate firm...Read More