N.Y. developer considered for Hazelwood Green site
The company that owns New York’s famous Rockefeller Center and helped to build Yankee Stadium may be in line for another big undertaking — the redevelopment of the former LTV Coke Works in Hazelwood.
New York-based Tishman Speyer is considered a leading candidate to become the master developer over the sprawling 178-acre site along the Monongahela River, according to real estate sources.
Almono LP, the owner of the property now known as Hazelwood Green, has been in the hunt for someone to take on that role since 2016.
In a statement Friday, Todd Stern, managing director of U3 Advisors, a development consultant to Almono, said no agreements are in place with any firm at this point.
“Hazelwood Green is a rare urban riverfront development opportunity, and Almono’s vision for Hazelwood Green — with its focus on sustainability, innovation, job creation, and engaged, constructive partnership with our Hazelwood neighbors — has attracted keen interest from numerous regional and national developers,” he said.
“Like any responsible organization, we only comment when and if we have agreements in place. And we do not expect to have a developer agreement in place for Hazelwood Green until the spring at the earliest.”
A representative from Tishman Speyer declined to comment.
In announcing the search for a master developer four years ago, Almono, a partnership made up of three local foundations, said it was searching for a firm “with both the financial resources and the global experience in producing exceptional and sustainable urban locations.”
Founded in 1978, Tishman has become a global owner, developer, operator and fund manager. Its reach extends from the United States to Europe, Latin America, India and China.
Tishman’s property portfolio exceeds $88 billion in value. Since its formation, it has acquired, developed and operated 406 assets totaling more than 167 million square feet.
The firm was involved in the redevelopment and repositioning of Rockefeller Center, its global headquarters, in the 1990s and assumed an ownership role in 2001. It also owns the 59-story MetLife Building adjoining Grand Central Station
At the new Yankee Stadium opened in 2009, Tishman managed and executed all phases of design and construction. It also has been involved in major office projects in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, and owns the largest private office building in Paris.
On its website, the firm says it has integrated mass transit with mixed-use properties it has developed and operated. Mass transit is one of the challenges Almono is facing at Hazelwood Green, where access is limited.
Almono — made up of the Heinz Endowments, the Richard King Mellon Foundation and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation — also is seeking to make the old mill site a global leader in sustainability.
It has the highest such standards of any development in the region, with all vertical buildings requiring an energy and environmental rating of at least LEED Gold.
Toward that end, Tishman emphasizes sustainability in its literature, noting that it generated a 6% reduction in energy intensity across its global portfolio between 2015 and 2016.
Dan Adamski, senior managing director of the Jones Lang LaSalle real estate firm in Pittsburgh, said the company would be a good fit as master developer. “From working with Tishman Speyer in New York and San Francisco, I know them to be a principle-driven organization with both national and global experience,” he said.
“If they are to be involved in Almono, their global perspective and, perhaps more importantly, their successful track record with large developments bodes well for the site.”
Sonya Tilghman, executive director of the Hazelwood Initiative community organization, said she is hoping for a master developer that is able to blend the new development with the existing neighborhood.
She stressed that someone “with good bona fides in affordable housing would be key.” In July, Tishman launched an affordable housing initiative, concentrated at first in New York.
City Councilman Corey O’Connor, who represents Hazelwood, prefers a Pittsburgh-area firm as master developer. “I hope they pick someone local with knowledge of the city,” he said. “I hope they work with the community, whoever they are.”
Almono is hoping to pin down a master developer at a critical juncture at Hazelwood Green. The redevelopment is just now gaining some momentum nearly two decades after the partnership took ownership of the site.
Almono has taken the lead role in the transformation of a 133-year-old locomotive roundhouse into a hub for startups, companies and people.
It has reached a deal with One Valley, formerly known as Global Silicon Valley Labs to build its next innovation center — and only its third in thecountry — in the facility.
Meanwhile, the Regional Industrial Development Corp., which has been a partner in the site’s overall plan, is well under way with Mill 19, the 265,000-square-foot complex built from the bones of an old Coke Works.
It recently activated one of the largest rooftop solar arrays in the country to power the facility. RIDC has completed two buildings within Mill 19 and is doing design work on a third.
Early this year, Almono hired U3 Advisors, based in New York and Philadelphia, to serve as development consultant.
It took over for the ReMake Group, which had been hired in 2016 and was responsible for putting the key infrastructure in place, including the main boulevard through the property. It also was instrumental in crafting a preliminary land development plan and master plan.
Almono turned to U3 Advisors as the focus of work shifted “principally to marketing, promotion and development.”