The Foundry

When The Foundry in South Strabane was planned, it was billed as a major addition to the commercial corridor in northern Washington County. The plan called for a 575,000 square foot retail center, with the eventual development of several outparcels. However, since opening in the spring of 2007, all the major tenants including J.C. Penney, Ross Dress for Less and Bed, Bath and Beyond have closed their doors due to settling soil. While the settling wasn't as dramatic as the "shifting" of soil in Kilbuck Township at the formerly proposed Wal-Mart development it has caused concern that the retaining wall near Route 19 isn't going to hold. By the way, the extent of the "shifting" in Kilbuck is pictured below:


To make matters worse, the developer of the site has declared bankruptcy. Christopher White, the head of Premier, has had criminal charges filed against him, detailed here in the Pittsburgh Business Times. To develop a successful retail center in the Pittsburgh region you need a keen understanding of the region's topography as well as good business sense. Chris White seems to have had neither.

Non-Ethnic Grocery Store Opening in Oakland

Friday will see the first opening of a traditional grocery store in Oakland in a decade. This IGA will open in The Strand Building at 11 am this Friday. It will be small, at only 4,000 square feet. I have previously ridiculed tiny grocery stores, so it is interesting that a new one is opening just two days after that post. Well at least I have been served a message that I do not have the most influential blog in Pittsburgh.



According to the Allegheny County Assessment Office, the property was purchased in January of 2005 for $2 million. There is also an apartment component to the building with 60 residential tenants. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article about the store is here.

Grocery Store in Hill District

Today the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on the two grocery store proposals for the planned grocery store in the Hill District at the corner of Centre Avenue and Heldman Street. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) will approve one of two plans in as short as the next couple of weeks. The two options for the Hill District are a standalone Save-A-Lot and a larger complex called Centre City Square which would be anchored by a Kuhn's grocery store. Centre City Square would also have a pharmacy and an outdoor plaza, as well as additional retail space. The total retail space in Centre City Square would be approximately 100,000 square feet, with 50,000 going to Kuhn's.

The bizarre aspect of the article is that the Post-Gazette reported that the Save-A-Lot store would be 1,200 square feet! There's no way that's right. I know the Hill District has gone without a grocery store for a long time, but I think people out there are going to know they come in bigger sizes. A July 3rd article in the Pittsburgh Business Times stated the Save-A-Lot would be 16,800 s.f. That's pretty small, but at 1,200 square feet, they'd only be able to carry about 3 products a day. So maybe on Monday people in the Hill District could buy bread, Tuesday they would be permitted to purchase one or two vegetables, maybe Wednesday they could put out a couple pieces of meat.

It seems like the population of the Hill District could definitely support more than a 1,200-16,800 square foot grocery store, and for the amount of time they have gone without one, it seems like something more should be in the works. However, the Centre City Square idea seems very ambitious for an area that hasn't seen largescale retail development in a long time. Given that taxpayer funding is going to be required no matter what the scale of the project, I hope a good impact study has determined how large a project can succeed so that taxpayers don't have to foot another, bigger bill if the project flops.

Three PNC Plaza

Construction has already broken ground on Three PNC Plaza. This is the first skyscraper in Pittsburgh since Dominion Tower in 1987. Reed Smith is going to occupy much of the 325,000 square feet of office space. In addition to the office space, the tower will have a 185 hotel and a 10 story, 30 unit condominium complex. Again, as discussed in a previous post, this will be high end multifamily living, which is the cornerstone of new downtown housing development.

Office space in general has done well in recent years. Occupancy rates are in the mid-80s generally, with the high end space in Oakland and downtown being the most desirable. Office space, however, hasn't been what developers would consider tight in recent memory. While some low-end, aged office space has been taken off the market in conversion to apartments or condos, this building will easily add more than that amount to the market. Additionally, Reed Smith will not be a new law firm entering the market, but rather an existing tenant of a building on 6th Avenue. That seems to be the disappointing aspect of this project. It is not being built primarily because of market demand.

New Trends in Downtown Housing

This post will be a little intellectually lazy, but there are several new urban Pittsburgh apartments and condominiums that have recently come online. I'm going to have to take some time to research some of this development, but I can think of several major ones off the top of my head.

Apartments

The largest project in recent multi-family development is the conversion of the Armstrong Cork Factory in the Strip District. The developers there took a hulking building and transformed it into 297 apartments. Amazingly, after completing renovations in 2006, the complex is nearly full. The downside is that rents are not cheap. Even the one bedrooms are near $1,000 / month.



A smaller, but new, high end loft apartment complex was converted in the Strip District recently called the Brake House. This project is an 18-unit loft concept. The apartments are fairly large and range from 725 to 1,560 square feet. Again, a pretty expensive place to hang your hat.

Condos

151 Firstside was completed recently. It was the first condo. building added in the Golden Triangle since 1968. There are 82 condos there, most of which have sold by now.

The G.C. Murphy building is going to be turned into condos, lofts, 60,000 square feet of retail and a YMCA. This should be completed by 2009.

Big news today was the start of construction on Vista Grande. This is more of a small, 11-unit condo complex, but is on Mt. Washington.

It seems more people want to live downtown, which is probably of long-term benefit to the city. If things really begin to click, there might be more retail that opens up and allows the city to start growing again. Hopefully that is not wishful thinking. Unfortunately, a lot of the housing that is growing downtown is high-end and unaffordable to normal Pittsburghers or most young professionals getting started. Hopefully that will begin to change in the future.

PS...I will be adding to this post because since 2000 there have been a few other major projects downtown. Apparently, I have to Google a little bit to finish this one.

Live Deliciously!

The Wholey's Building in the Strip District is reportedly under agreement of sale to be converted to condominiums. Long a Pittsburgh icon, the building, located on Penn Avenue, was marketed for sale by Grubb & Ellis.

According to the Pittsburgh Business-Times, the Sampson Morris Group of Monroeville will be buying the property for an undisclosed amount. The company plans to convert the 310,000 square foot building to condos.

Casino License

I mentioned yesterday that state senators Ferlo and Orie are calling to have Don Barden's casino license revoked. There are more details on their plan here and a slamming of the gambling board here. While the gaming board's selection of Barden was at best flawed and at worst corrupt, they are now stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, PITG has defaulted on a $200 million loan. On the other hand awarding it to someone else is going to be difficult because of the credit crunch affecting national markets. If the license goes to someone else, they will have to be much better capitalized because access to money is going to be much more difficult than it was when Barden was granted the license. In other words, the state gaming board passed up an opportunity to award the license to someone competent and the city of Pittsburgh is now stuck with a concrete skeleton that has been at a standstill for the past two weeks.