Pittsburgh Develop PGH Bulletins: Court Ruling Keeps Froggy's Standing, As Disappointed Developer Mulls Options

Pittsburgh PA

17 January, 2021

4:52 PM

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By Rich Lord, Public Source January 15, 2021 Develop PGH Bulletins updates you on the Pittsburgh region's economy, including close coverage of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, City Planning Commission and other important agencies. Please check back frequently, sign up for the Develop PGH newsletter and email [email protected] with questions, tips or story ideas. A judge this week nixed a bid to tear down the former Froggy's building and potentially build a tower on its Firstside site, and the owner said he hasn't yet decided how to proceed with one of 2020's most controversial development proposals. A judge this week nixed a bid to tear down the former Froggy's building and potentially build a tower on its Firstside site, and the owner said he hasn't yet decided how to proceed with one of 2020's most controversial development proposals. In a decision dated Monday, Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Judge Joseph James denied developer Troiani Group's appeals of city decisions barring demolition of two low-slung brick buildings along Market Street. Both sit within the Firstside National Register Historic District. One of them once housed the iconic watering hole named for bartender Steve "Froggy" Morris. Troiani Group came before the City Planning Commission in June, asking for authorization to raze the buildings, and saying he planned to clear the way for a 385-foot tower with 150 residences, offices and 300 parking spaces. Historic preservationists said the buildings should be reused rather than razed. Troiani countered that they couldn't be salvaged. The commission sided with the preservationists, prompting Troiani's appeal to court. In his six-page opinion, James wrote that the commission "found that Troiani did not adequately address the preservation of the historic structures or meet its burden of demonstrating that reuse of the existing buildings was unreasonable or uneconomical." He added that he declined to "substitute [his own] interpretation of the evidence for that of the local agency." Troiani told PublicSource that the decision was "a disappointment of the scale, professionally and personally, that I never expected." He said he submitted "hundreds of pages of evidence" that the buildings could not be economically reused. He said his development and legal teams planned to meet promptly to consider next steps. A brewer who plans to turn an empty Mt. Washington school into 34 reasonably priced apartments should improve the site's borders with the neighborhood, City Planning Commission members said as they got their first look at the proposed Grandview Lofts plan. Mindful Grandview LLC, run by Mindful Brewing owner Dustin Jones, plans to convert the former Saint Mary's on the Mount Catholic School into apartments that will rent for around $800 to $1,200 a month, Jones told the commission. The school has been closed since 2012. The site is at the intersection of Grandview Avenue and Bigham Street, and also borders Amabell Street. It would preserve much of the school's exterior and interior structure, and would feature a rooftop deck with a stunning view of Downtown. Commissioners had concerns with the stark retaining walls and fences planned for the flanks along Grandview and Amabell. "It just looks very like an old Catholic school, still. It doesn't look like a cool, hip loft," said Commissioner Becky Mingo. "It's very much this massive concrete wall with just a suburban, cut, fierce grass area." "Having it just be a wall and a fence that looks like the neighborhood is unsafe is maybe not the image you want to communicate," added commission Chair Christine Mondor. She asked designer Gregory Newman to take the concerns back to Jones. Jones virtually attended the meeting, which was conducted by Zoom, but did not say anything about the landscaping concerns. The commission is expected to vote on the plan Jan 26. Correction: Designer Gregory Newman's profession was mischaracterized in an earlier version of this bulletin. The famous Kaufmann's windows along Downtown's Smithfield Street, long known for their Christmas displays, will be replaced with bigger ones that allow passersby to see into the coming Target department store, according to a plan approved by the City Planning Commission. The large main panes have historically been transparent, but have not offered views of the interior, while smaller upper panes have been opaque. Target plans to make them all transparent or translucent, which Target architect Doug Bartolomeo characterized as "spreading a little bit of Target brand and Kaufmann's brand and the building's brand across our new storefront." "Bravo for giving us view and sight both in and out of the building," said commission Chair Christine Mondor. Target has said construction on its 20,000-square-foot store could start this month. "We feel that the revitalization of this building, which has sat empty for some time and holds such an important part in the history of Pittsburgh, is really big step forward" for Downtown, said architect Ryan Croyle, of Desmone Architects, who is working with Target. With a federal curb on evictions now set to expire at the end of this month, Democrats in Pennsylvania's General Assembly are urging a more complete state moratorium that would bar forced dislocations through at least April. A quartet of state lawmakers announced Monday that they were introducing legislation that would bar evictions and foreclosures until 60 days after the expiration of the state disaster declaration, which currently runs through February. That declaration does not bar evictions. The lawmakers said they want a new eviction moratorium to extend a few months beyond the end of the pandemic emergency, to allow for a gradual return to normalcy. One of the four, Rep. Sara Innamorato, D-Lawrenceville, said that evictions cause "unspeakable pain" for families, including those with children, and should not happen during an epidemic that has compromised peoples' incomes and threatened their health. "More and more families were living paycheck to paycheck before the pandemic," she said, "and now millions of them find themselves without that paycheck." She cited research suggesting that, at a time when transience could contribute to the spread of COVID-19, every 60 evictions can spur one additional death. "It is a public health issue, and we need to take action as a legislature" to reduce it, she said. She was joined by state Sen. Vincent Hughes and senator-elect Nikil Saval, and state Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler, all Philadelphia Democrats. They said they were distributing memos seeking cosponsors in both chambers, and were hopeful that they would be joined by some of the majority Republicans. There was no immediate response to PublicSource's inquiries to spokespersons for the Republican caucuses. The Democrats said they had heard from landlords concerned about the effects of a ban, and believed that a combination of an eviction moratorium and an effective statewide rental assistance program would serve both sides of the rental housing equation. They said the federal government is sending the state $852 million that it can use for rental assistance and related services. "The majority of landlords are small, mom and pop businesses," said Innamorato. She worried that ineffective rental assistance could force some landlords to sell their holdings to large, corporate landlords. "I, for one, do not want that in my neighborhoods." Evictions were largely barred from mid-March through the end of August. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention order restricted, but did not ban, evictions nationwide starting Sept. 4. An Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas emergency order also halts progress on some eviction cases through the end of this week. As a result, evictions have continued, though at a lower level than was seen prior to the pandemic. Foreclosures likewise remain far below historic norms. In a separate interview, Anne Wright, a researcher with Carnegie Mellon University's Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment [CREATE] Lab researcher, told PublicSource that there are now 469 hearings in landlord-tenant cases scheduled for next week before district judges in Allegheny County. She called those hearings, which are typically held in-person, a potential "superspreader event" that could facilitate the spread of COVID-19. Wright said some district judges are still issuing orders of possession, which allow the landlord to have the tenant forcibly removed from a property. CREATE Lab has been working with a network of advocates and attorneys to help families facing eviction. Pittsburgh saw a dip last year in construction permit activity, apparently driven by the eight-week pause in the construction season that followed COVID-19's mid-March arrival in the region, according to Sarah Kinter, the city's director of Permits, Licenses and Inspections [PLI]. "Overall, we're seeing a really strong construction market," said Kinter, in an interview with PublicSource. She added that PLI responded to the pandemic by eliminating paper applications, and the all-electronic process and chat function available at the city's permitting website have streamlined her department's processes. The city issues building permits, plus permits for electrical, mechanical, fire alarm, demolition and other types of work. Overall, the city issued 9,107 permits last year, down nearly 12% from 2019 levels, she said. Commercial permit approvals were down 13%, while residential permit approvals dipped 11%, she said. A measure of proposed construction activity is permit applications, some of which are never approved. Those were down nearly 15% from 2019 levels. A 24% plunge in commercial building permit applications which was partially offset by very stable residential building permit requests. Kinter said some people apparently filed residential permit applications in hopes of improving their home-offices, but then abandoned those bids because they couldn't find contractors with capacity. She said that in 2020, her staff had to shift gears repeatedly, from enforcing a ban on construction in early spring to addressing a surge in late spring, while doing more work remotely. She said the department expects "a spike" when the economy's health rebounds. Will her department be able to handle a spike? The city's COVID-driven budget crunch has prevented PLI from filling two construction inspector positions and an application technician post, she said, and prevented some back office hires. If the federal government does not aid cities, she said, "there are some additional cuts we'd have to consider as of July 1, 2021, and those would really be harmful to our operations." She had not yet mapped out the potential cuts. News from the City Planning Commission, Urban Redevelopment Authority, Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh and more 21, 20, 19 … As Pittsburgh counts down to a new year amid the COVID-19 economy, 2020's development questions await 2021's answers. 'Throwing everything against the wall,' Pittsburgh's housing authority aims to dent lengthy waiting lists 'A big elephant in the room.' A McKeesport mother's months-long battle to save her house has her home for the holidays, with a deadline looming. PPP poured more than $1.5 billion into Pittsburgh. Did it go to the businesses that needed it most? House hunters: How an anti-blight law has become a tool for ambitious landlords in Allegheny County All on board? Powerful Pittsburgh-area panels are more diverse, but progress is uneven A tale of two districts: In Strip and Firstside, the Peduto administration cheers some development, stops other plans Not over in the Hill: Neighborhood leaders say the Penguins are coming up short November development coverage Rich Lord is PublicSource's economic development reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @richelord. Develop PGH has been made possible with funding from The Heinz Endowments. This article was produced by PublicSource.org, a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. PublicSource tells stories for a better Pittsburgh. Sign up for their free email newsletters at publicsource.org/newsletters.