Developer touts benefits of FNB tower at former arena site
The developer of the proposed 26-story First National Bank headquarters at the former Civic Arena site is getting down to business.
Chris Buccini, co-president of the Buccini/Pollin Group, said Wednesday that the company hopes to take control of the public land needed for the $230 million office tower in June, with construction to begin soon thereafter.
If the schedule holds, it would represent the first development at the 28-acre site since the Penguins won control over the lower Hill District land in the 2007 deal to build PPG Paints Arena.
“We have a very tight window to start to make this project work for FNB Bank, our tenant. We also have construction costs rapidly increasing as well as interest rates,” he said.
The schedule calls for completion of the project by the end of 2023.
Mr. Buccini made his comments during a discussion hosted by the developer that touted the benefits of the project, not only to the lower Hill but also to the neighborhood as a whole.
The project encountered criticism during a development activities meeting two weeks ago organized by the Hill Community Development Corp. Mr. Buccini reiterated Wednesday that the FNB project alone would generate roughly $34 million in direct investment in other parts of the Hill.
That includes $7.5 million to be diverted to the middle and upper Hill from the tax revenue generated by the office tower, which FNB will anchor. The bank has agreed to advance the funding at the project closing.
FNB, according to the presentation, also has committed or proposed $17 million in loans and grants for Hill initiatives and projects.
It also has pledged to front an estimated $3 million in parking tax revenues to be generated from construction of an 850-space parking garage to create a housing fund for home improvements and other costs.
The development team also emphasized that it is committed to 30% minority business and 15% women’s business participation on the project. That’s above the city’s goals of 18% and 7%, respectively.
So far, it has obtained 41.6% — 28.2% MBE and 13.4% WBE — participation in the pre- development phase.
“It’s easy for some to criticize the efforts that are happening here, but I hope you see tonight that we have a group of people who really are trying to do the right thing to really reconnect and invest in the community,” said Kevin Acklin, the Penguins’ chief operating officer.
Diamonte Walker, deputy director of the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, which owns part of the arena site, said the various initiatives are important so that “we don’t end up with a tale of two neighorhoods, where we have the lower Hill that’s been redeveloped and everything above Crawford Street has fundamentally been forgotten about.”
“We’ve got to work together. We’ve got to have a strong formidable strategy because we have to ensure folks are prepared and they have a pipeline to opportunity,” she said.
Not everyone is happy with the progress. The Hill CDC’s development review panel has given “E” and “F” grades in terms of compliance with a neighborhood master plan and a community benefits agreement related to the arena site negotiated in 2014.
Wednesday evening, the Hill CDC released a statement offering additional community reinvestment recommendations it said were requested by the Penguins’ development team.
They included “baby bonds” to address generational wealth disparities for Hill children “to set them on the right path,” hiring commitments at every level of the project to address chronic underemployment, opportunity zone protections to prevent displacement and rampant gentrification, and half grants and half loans to support equitable redevelopment of Centre Avenue and to address barriers that Black- owned businesses and nonprofits face.
The recommendations are designed to protect the Hill from “rampant displacement and gentrification that will only be intensified by their development,” according to the statement.