Housing planned as part of project to enhance PPG Paints Arena area
A $47 million mixed-use development that includes 106 units of housing is in the works several blocks from PPG Paints Arena.
The nine-story City’s Edge development would be built next to the NRG Energy Plant at 1400 Colwell St. bordering Uptown and the lower Hill District.
MidPoint Group of Companies, the developer, is proposing 74 affordable and 32 market rate units to go along with a 423space parking garage and 12,000 square feet of commercial space.
It is scheduled to brief the city planning commission on the proposal next week.
The development would bolster a key section of the Fifth Avenue corridor and could provide “a boost to struggling retail in the arena district,” said Jeanne McNutt, executive director of Uptown Partners of Pittsburgh.
“When there isn’t a game or a concert, the avenue is pretty slow, very quiet, quieter than we would like it,” she said.
Ms. McNutt also was excited about the affordable units, which would be available to households earning 20 percent to 60 percent of the area median income.
MidPoint was selected by the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority to develop the URA-owned land earlier this year after responding to a request for proposals.
“The attraction was the opportunity to develop some mixed income property that includes both affordable units and commercial units in a very good location,” said P. Nathaniel Boe, MidPoint president and CEO.
URA officials originally pitched the site for a parking garage. But Pittsburgh-based MidPoint had a broader vision, Mr. Boe said.
“We saw this as an opportunity to build a catalytic project in the neighborhood,” he said. “Instead of a garage, we wanted to do something bigger and better.”
Under the plan, five stories of residential units would be built atop four stories of parking and the commercial space.
MidPoint is looking at a restaurant, an incubation space for minority- and women-owned businesses, and a medical center for urgent care and a pharmacy to fill the 12,000 feet of
commercial space, Mr. Boe said. It also is considering daycare, after-school programs and a community room on a second floor to round out the space.
Mr. Boe believes the housing units will provide opportunities for residents to walk or take mass transit to work. The development also would be part of the proposed Uptown Eco-Innovation District.
There also are plans for a public plaza, including a performance stage and an art wall, off Pride Street intended to “create a connectivity between Uptown and the lower Hill,” Mr. Boe said.
“We saw a great, great opportunity for us to do something much larger than a parking garage,” he said.
MidPoint hopes to start construction in the first quarter of 2018 and have the project completed by July 2019.
Also Tuesday, Oxford Development Co. is expected to brief the planning commission on a zoning change it is seeking for a parcel of land at 28th and Railroad streets in the Strip District near its 3 Crossings office, residential and parking development.
According to the briefing materials, the nearly 7 acres of land is a “primary focus” for a second phase of 3 Crossings, although there are “currently no concrete plans for development on the parcel.”
Ben Kelley, Oxford’s development manager, called it 3 Crossings 2.0, but said plans are still in the preliminary stages. The first step is to get the zoning changed to urban industrial to clear a path for future development, he said.