Developer proposes apartment complex at SouthSide Works
The new owner of SouthSide Works is pitching its latest plan to reinvigorate the former steel mill site — a 246-unit apartment building to be built on the Monongahela riverfront.
SomeraRoad outlined its proposal for the seven-story complex on South Water Street adjacent to South Shore Riverfront Park and Hofbrauhaus restaurant to the city planning commission Tuesday.
“We think this project really can be a beacon and a landmark for SouthSide Works, both from the opposite side of the river as well as the balance of the South Side of Pittsburgh,” said Andrew Donchez, SomeraRoad director of development.
Mr. Donchez told the commission during a briefing that the project is part “a wholesale reimagining and re-envisioning” of the South Side retail, office and residential complex by the New York-based real estate company.
SomeraRoad acquired the 34-acre property from the Soffer Organization in 2019 with plans to invest millions of dollars to bring new energy to a destination that had fallen on hard times in recent years.
In its short time at the helm, the company already has started making big changes. It is transforming the former SouthSide Works Cinema into the Box Office, a 77,000- square- foot office space
“We think this project really can be a beacon and a landmark for SouthSide Works, both from the opposite side of the river as well as the balance of the South Side of Pittsburgh.”
Andrew Donchez, SomeraRoad director of development
designed to attract tech tenants and others.
It also is preparing to embark on a redesign of the SouthSide Works town square, including the addition of two food and beverage kiosks, a stage and a large lawn. Furthermore, it is creating a dog park in the Tunnel Park area.
“We’re really trying to take a holistic look at how SouthSide Works functions as a community within the broader South Side community,” Mr. Donchez said.
The new apartment complex will be built on one of two riverfront parcels still to be developed within the complex. The 1.8-acre site sits about 40 feet above the river.
Totaling nearly 350,000 square feet in all, the building will house the 246 apartments as well as a parking garage with 184 spaces for vehicles and 108 for bicycles, both of which exceed the city requirements.
SomeraRoad also is planning a direct connection to the Three Rivers Heritage trail and a third-floor amenity terrace that will feature a swimming pool, garden and courtyard, and lawn.
In addition, it has been in discussions with the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, which owns the parcel, about doing some affordable housing as part of the development.
The company plans to use ivory brick, cement board, stone, and glass in the construction of the complex. It is hoping to break ground in the fourth quarter of this year and finish the project in the first quarter of 2023.
While SomeraRoad plans to link the complex to the riverfront trail, commission member Becky Mingo said she had concerns about some aspects of it.
The development, she said, should be “additive to either the bike trail and the South Side riverfront park in some ways. It seems to me now that it is taking more from the public realm than it is giving to the public realm.”
“I feel like you’ve just made this massive wall along this bike trail where the speed of those bikes already is endangering public safety, pedestrian safety and you haven’t helped to solve that problem at all,” she said.
Ms. Mingo added that she wants SomeraRoad to show how it is “helping to make that riverfront trail a little bit safer” and more welcoming to the public.
Given the high-profile riverfront location for the apartments, she also questioned the developer’s use of light colors for the facade, saying that they could attract “lines [or] streaks of pollution” over time.
SomeraRoad representatives did not specifically address her concerns during the briefing. The project will be back before the commission in two weeks for a public hearing and a vote.