Deal provides vision for future
This article was modified at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 1, 2005, to correctly identify the present location of Pittsburgh Vision Services' Industries Center is in Oakland.
Eight years after a merger of two separate entities created Pittsburgh Vision Services, the organization that provides wide-ranging services for blind and visually impaired people is moving closer to its goal of consolidating its operations under one roof.
A series of pending real estate transactions will enable Pittsburgh Vision Services to relocate its main headquarters from Oakland to a former hospital building in Homestead by midyear and, sometime later, move its Bridgeville-based operations to the same site.
In addition, the sale of the organization's 90,000-square-foot building at 300 S. Craig St. will give Carnegie Mellon University added space near its Oakland campus to house research operations, including some for the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.
The property deals, expected to be completed within the next 30 to 60 days, will create a central location for Pittsburgh Vision's clients and employees, said Stephen Barrett, the group's executive director.
In addition, the transactions should bring financial stability to the organization, which was formed when the Oakland-based Pittsburgh Blind Association and the Greater Pittsburgh Guild for the Blind in Bridgeville merged in 1997.
"Ever since our merger, we've owned and operated two separate facilities with a total of 112,000 square feet of space," Barrett said. "But it's been a major drain on budget and to a large extent caused us to operate (at) a deficit every year since."
The nonprofit organization, which operates on an annual budget of about $7 million, employs 150 and serves the needs of about 1,200 to 1,400 blind and vision-impaired people annually at its centers. It also provides vision screening for thousands of preschool children at locations throughout the region.
The sale of its two buildings will bring in about $7 million to $8 million, part of which will be used to buy and renovate the 55,000-square-foot Homestead facility, with the rest devoted to programs and operations.
The group started looking for a location to consolidate services about two years ago, said Charles Horne, who heads the facilities committee of its board of directors.
"It's been a very complicated process," said Horne, who worked on the deals with Jay Phoebe, broker with Hanna Commercial, an arm of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services.
Barrett said the Homestead facility is located behind the main former Homestead Hospital building off West Street near the border with Munhall. He said it proved to be a good fit for the organization. The property is owned by The Eastern Orthodox Foundation, a nonprofit group.
The bulk of the organization's services and employees are expected to be in the building by June.
The only exception will be its Industries Center in Oakland, which employs about 30 blind or visually impaired craftsmen who manufacture a variety of products ranging from the familiar commercial brooms to hard hats, silk screening and portable highway signs for the state Department of Transportation, to charcoal packets and combat helmets for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Those employees instead will move temporarily to a one-story, 22,000-square-foot building the organization will lease at the 150,000-square-foot Hinkel-Hoffman commercial complex on Western Avenue on Pittsburgh's North Side.
It has not yet been determined when the Industries Center can be relocated to Homestead, said Barrett, who said the North Side lease will be for up to 36 months.
CMU is happy with its part of the transaction, said Chris Gabriel, vice provost and chief technology officer.
"This is a positive addition to Carnegie Mellon," said Gabriel, who oversees university capital projects, facilities design, construction and renovations. "Meanwhile, we will endeavor to preserve the character of the Craig Street business district, which we believe is very successful and important to our campus community."
Ann Nicholson, who started with Pittsburgh Vision Services as a client in 1996 and now is an instructor in its Personal Adjustment to Blindness Training Program, has high expectations for the coming relocation, although with somewhat mixed emotions.
"Being in two separate buildings right now has a lot of challenges to it," said Nicholson, of Mt. Lebanon. "There are a lot things we really can capitalize on by being in one location. We've got some incredibly smart people doing great things that could reach even further if we all come together.
"However, we're not there yet, so we really don't know exactly what to expect," she said. "I see wonderful, wonderful things that can happen, but it's also sad because there are some people who will choose not to go."
Additional Information:
Pittsburgh Vision Services
Founded -- 1997 with the merger of the Pittsburgh Blind Association of Oakland and the Greater Pittsburgh Guild for the Blind in Bridgeville
Employees -- 150
Budget -- $7 million annually
Current Homes -- 300 S. Craig St., Oakland, and 311 Station St., Bridgeville
Future Home -- Building B at former Homestead Hospital complex in Homestead
Property Deal -- Carnegie Mellon University will buy organization's Oakland Building to house research activities; Southwood Psychiatric Hospital will buy its Bridgeville facility to operate a residential education program for mentally challenged children; Pittsburgh Vision will use proceeds to buy and renovate Homestead building and lease space for its industrial center at the Hinkel-Hoffman commercial complex on the North Side.
