Downtown digs

Cultural Trust project deserves this state boost

Astate grant of about $517,000 and state loan of nearly $775,000 will pay for demolition of the former Duff’s Business Institute building at Ninth Street and Fort Duquesne Boulevard, a site the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is eyeing for a residential tower. The trust has been an imaginative developer, responsible landlord and change agent over the years, so it deserves support for another venture aimed at burnishing Downtown.

At first blush, a residential project might seem outside a cultural organization’s wheelhouse. However, the trust, founded in 1984, has made redevelopment a cornerstone of its work and calls itself a “national model of urban redevelopment through the arts.”

It’s largely responsible for creation of the 14-block Cultural District, having acquired, renovated, built or leased more than a dozen performance and exhibition venues. Its portfolio includes the 2,890-seat Benedum Center for the Performing Arts, the 1,300-seat Byham Theater and 650seat O’Reilly Theater. Its galleries and exhibition spaces enliven Penn and Liberty avenues, a stretch once better known for entertainment of the red-light variety.

The trust has added value to Downtown in more ways than one. In 2010, it rolled out ParkPGH, a website and app that offers real-time information on parking space availability Downtown and on the North Shore. Support came from philanthropist and arts patron Bill Benter, who grew weary of the mad hunt for a parking space before curtain-raising.

While much new housing has been built Downtown in recent years, most of it has been on the periphery of the Cultural District. The trust’s vision of 800 to 900 units, centered around the Duff’s site, could help to create a critical mass of arts patrons who want walkable access to their favorite venues. Depending on how they’re priced, the units also could be a magnet for writers, musicians and other aspiring artists who have reason to be close to performance and exhibit spaces.

The state aid, arranged by Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Brookline, will pay for the important step of tearing down the trustowned Duff’s building so the site can be repurposed. The residential tower could be part of a broader three-block project, to include retail shopping and other kinds of public spaces, that’s been on the trust’s drawing board for years. The concept even had a name, RiverParc, before plans were shelved in 2008 for economic reasons.

As it moves forward, the trust may find some synergy between its plans and those of the Pittsburgh Parking Authority, which has proposed a $175 million mixed-use development at Ninth and Penn. Coordination is key, especially if the authority’s project also includes housing; there’s no point in saturating the market.

In September, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council released a study asserting that the arts have a bigger economic impact in Pittsburgh than they do in comparable cities. The trust’s development of the Cultural District begat much of that impact, and an expansion of the organization’s footprint now bodes well for Downtown.