PRODUCING RESULTS
The long-awaited deal on the produce terminal in the Strip District might be close to completion
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Dan McCaffery has a funny way of spending his vacation.
The Chicago developer broke off a Florida trip Wednesday to travel to Pittsburgh in an effort to finally seal a deal — four years in the making — to redevelop the Strip District’s iconic produce terminal.
Mr. McCaffery, CEO of McCaffery Interests, met with representatives for Mayor Bill Peduto, City Councilwoman Deborah Gross and other city officials in hopes of reaching an agreement in time for Thursday’s Urban Redevelopment Authority meeting.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Mr. McCaffery said he planned to attend the URA meeting in anticipation of a vote that would give him control of the historic warehouse, once a hub for produce wholesalers.
“I’m here to go to the meeting. Unless I’m told I’m not welcome, I’m going to the meeting,” he said. “I’m expecting it to go forward.”
Mr. McCaffery spent more than an hour Wednesday huddled in Mr. Peduto’s office with the mayor’s aides and URA representatives. He later met with Ms. Gross, who represents the Strip.
The goal, he stated, was to make sure the various parties involved, including the URA which owns the Strip landmark, were in
alignment on a deal. “I get the feeling like we’re done, and I hope we are,” he said.
McCaffery Interests reached a memorandum of understanding with the city last year under which he agreed to lease the building from the URA for 99 years. He also has the right to buy the warehouse 15 years after the first phase of redevelopment has been completed.
Since then, both sides have been working to finalize the deal, one complicated by plans for $18.5 million in improvements to Smallman Street in front of the 1,533foot-long building.
Dan Gilman, chief of staff to Mr. Peduto, said the parties were “working through some critical final details” in an effort to move forward.
“Dan [McCaffery] has to get his numbers to work. We’re asking for a significant investment of his money and the public’s money into this,” he said.
Mr. Gilman wouldn’t predict whether a deal would be done before Thursday. “I do think we’re close and working hard toward a final agreement on everything,” he said.
“It’s not like there’s one issue we’re working through here. It’s a really complicated deal of public space and development. As you move a piece, every piece moves.”
As part of a $62.6 million redevelopment, McCaffery Interests is proposing a public market totaling at least 20,000 square feet at the western end closest to Downtown. It also has agreed to lease at least 40,000 square feet within the complex to local or regional businesses focused on artisan food, crafts, produce, meats and creative arts.
Offices, services such as spas or fitness space, crafts, and perhaps even music venues or nightclubs also are planned for parts of the cavernous 160,000-squarefoot structure. McCaffery has dropped earlier plans for apartments.
Mr. Peduto said he wants to make the terminal “a unique attraction” filled with similar amenities, including a produce market and office space for small local businesses.
He also wants to see Contemporary Craft, which occupies the eastern end of the building, remain.
The mayor said funding the venture has been one of the more complicated aspects of the redevelopment. Closing a gap in the financing was one of the issues being worked on Wednesday, he said.
Under McCaffery’s proposal, the entire building would be preserved — a priority for Mr. Peduto, who opposed a previous plan by the Buncher Co. that involved demolishing the western third of the warehouse.
Public realm improvements from the 16th Street Bridge to St. Stanislaus Kostka Church would be made in conjunction with the terminal’s redevelopment if a deal is reached, Mr. Peduto said.
Under the memorandum of understanding, McCaffery had agreed to pay $2.5 million to lease the building — the same amount the URA set as the minimum asking price in 2014 when the developer first got involved.
At the time officials said that since the building is being reused for commercial purposes, McCaffery would pay real estate taxes on it.