Pittsburgh Stadium Authority gets yet another long-term extension
At this rate, the Pittsburgh Stadium Authority may outlast the stadiums themselves.
Facing extinction in December 2028, the authority got the votes from its board earlier this week to extend its life until April 5, 2049.
By then, PNC Park and Heinz Field, both of which opened in 2001, will be almost 50 years old. The leases the Pirates and Steelers signed to play in them end in 2030 and 2031, respectively, barring extensions.
The irony is that the stadium authority, despite its name, has nothing to do with either of the facilities.
Created in 1964 to oversee construction of and own Three Rivers Stadium, the authority now serves as the caretaker of the land between Heinz Field and PNC Park, most of which it has sold for development. It also owns the new Gold 1 parking garage next to Heinz Field and the West General Robinson Street garage about a block away.
The extension is the second the authority has granted itself in the last four years.
In 2013, the authority had considered a 35-year extension, presumably until 2048, until then city councilman Bill Peduto, several months before taking office as mayor, stepped in and demanded that it be limited to 15 years — the time needed to pay off the debt on the West General Robinson Street garage.
Now, with the latest vote, the authority not only may get to 2048, but a year beyond that.
Mary Conturo, the stadium authority’s executive director, said the latest extension was needed as part of a long-term joint financing deal it is working on with the Pittsburgh-Allegheny County Sports & Exhibition Authority involving the North Shore garages.
The fixed-rate financing would apply to the Gold 1 and West General Robinson Street garages as well as the nearby SEA-owned North Shore garage. It would run 20 to 25 years — thus the need to extend the authority’s life beyond 2028.
It would replace shorterterm bank loans. The longer term financing would take the economic uncertainty out of having to secure loans every five to seven years and lock in the low interest rates currently available, said Ms. Conturo, who doubles as SEA executive director.
“Long-term financing is beneficial for both authorities,” she said.
Before the extension, the stadium authority did review a possible merger with the SEA or the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority or parking authority.
But it decided against such a consolidation, because there would still be a need to keep track of stadium authority assets separately from those
owned by the other agencies. “We determined in conjunction with the city that this was the most efficient thing to do,” she said.
Kevin Acklin, chief of staff to Mr. Peduto, said he will be reviewing the analysis with the mayor and city council, which must vote on the extension.
That analysis showed that “a reorganization or merger of the stadium authority with another public entity may require additional transactional costs without significant public benefit,” he said.
Ms. Conturo stressed that there is a lot of coordination that now takes place between the stadium authority and the SEA, the owner of PNC Park and Heinz Field. The two share a staff.
“We already minimize any overhead. The stadium authority has no space. We don’t pay rent and we don’t have any employees,” Ms. Conturo said.
It does spend about $18,000 a year on an audit and insurance and contributes $47,000 annually toward the expenses of the SEA.
The latest extension comes at a time the authority is running out of land to sell.
For more than a decade, it has been selling off parcels, some more controversial than others, to Continental Real Estate Companies to develop office buildings, entertainment, restaurants, and a hotel between the two stadiums. Continental was hired by the Steelers and Pirates.
Now there is only one unsold parcel remaining on North Shore Drive and several others left on West General Robinson Street, Ms. Conturo said.
Once they are sold, about the only assets the authority would still hold are the two garages and surrounding surface lots.
With the extension, authority board members will continue to have access to the perks that come with the job. They include the use of a suite at PNC Park for one game and four tickets to five games. At Heinz Field, they have use of two tickets to four games.