Pittsburgh Cultural Trust looks at development ideas for long-disputed site Downtown
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is investigating development possibilities for a prime six-acre Downtown site where it had planned $460 million in housing, retail and performing arts space that fell through in a down economy and ended in a lawsuit, officials said Tuesday.
“All plans will need to be reassessed, but the primary focus is still to develop residential housing,” said Cultural Trust President and CEO J. Kevin McMahon.
When the RiverParc project was proposed in the mid-2000s, it included seven high-rise condominiums along with townhouses, a four-star hotel, parking garage, a performing arts venue and street-level retail in most of the new buildings. Washington's Urban Land Institute called it one of the nation's most significant urban projects.
But in 2008, turmoil in the residential mortgage and national credit markets led the Cultural Trust to shelve the project. Arlington, Va.-based developer Concord Eastridge Inc., which had been selected in a competition involving more than 100 firms, sued the trust in 2009. It sought more than $32 million in a jury trial.
A court order filed March 9 in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas said the case had been settled and discontinued, so there will be no trial. McMahon and David Berardinelli, a Pittsburgh attorney representing Concord Eastridge, said they could not reveal terms of the deal, citing a confidentiality agreement.
“We continue to see a lot of people interested in living Downtown. Buildings are getting rented out about as quickly as they can be put on the market,” said Jeremy Waldrup, CEO of the nonprofit Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.
Waldrup said his group has provided a range of Downtown market data to the Cultural Trust since it settled its lawsuit.
“You don't get a better location than they have. They are sitting in the heart of the Cultural District, right along the riverfront. I'm excited that they are going to take another look at what this space should be,” said Waldrup, who is on the Cultural Trust's real estate committee.
McMahon said the Cultural Trust is “looking forward to revisiting” the would-be development, although he provided no timetable for the work.
“The Cultural District is far more advanced than it was over a decade ago,” McMahon said. “We are confident that time has provided us with greater insight into the needs and demands of the Cultural District and the millions of visitors and hundreds of new families that now call the district their home.”
Since the Cultural District shelved the original project, residential development in the Greater Downtown area has exploded. A Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership study released in May showed that 1,340 residential units were built or began construction since 2010, with more than 2,200 units planned. Greater Downtown includes the Golden Triangle, North Shore, South Shore, Uptown, the Bluff and the Strip District as far northeast as 31st Street.
The neighborhood's population of 12,343 was up 10.5 percent from 2010, the study showed.
Tom Fontaine is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7847 or tfontaine@tribweb.com.
