Downtown Pittsburgh Building Boom Shows No Signs Of Letting Up

Pittsburgh Downtown at Night (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The development boom in the city center is showing no signs of abating.

Whether it’s in urban living, where three-quarters of the residents are relative newcomers, or light-rail transit usage, which saw an increase last year thanks to the new North Shore Connector, or reports of yet another hotel in the works, Downtown’s fortunes continue to be on the rise.

At least that appears to be the case based on a new Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership report measuring economic activity in and around the Golden Triangle last year.  The “State of Downtown Pittsburgh 2013″ details a number of encouraging trends, from the widely reported bump in residential and office space demand to an increase in the number of building permits issued for improvements last year.

Overall, the partnership counted 60 projects totaling more than $2.2 billion that have been announced or are under construction in the city’s core and fringes, including the 33-story, $400 million Tower at PNC Plaza on Wood Street, which is scheduled to open in the summer of 2015.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/downtown-pittsburgh-building-boom-shows-no-signs-of-letting-up-687244/#ixzz2TBe3tPvI

Financing For Pennsylvania Turnpike/I-95 Connector Concerns Auditor General

Map of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said Friday that an unusual plan to finance construction of the I-95/Pennsylvania Turnpike connection “raises alarms” and may prompt an investigation by his office.

DePasquale said he was especially interested in why an entity was created to broker the deal, in which wealthy foreign investors would lend the turnpike $200 million in exchange for possible permanent residence in the United States.

DePasquale said his office was legally bound to wait until a transaction is completed before launching an audit, so “it may be several months or longer” before he formally investigates the turnpike plan.

“I am going to follow this situation carefully,” DePasquale said.  ”It raises some alarms.  I’m not taking a position that it’s wrong yet. . . . We’ll wait till the issue is ripe for an audit.”

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/business/transportation/20130511_Financing_for_turnpike_I-95_connector_concerns_auditor_general.html#KbbfJ65OCH8owKzj.99

CHOP To Build New Facility In King Of Prussia

Location of Upper Merion Township in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

UPPER MERION TOWNSHIP – Realen Properties’ master plan for a multifaceted center in King of Prussia is back in full swing.

With residential construction imminent, those who may not necessarily be calling the Village at Valley Forge home will ultimately find it to be a premier destination for working, shopping, dining and, now, medical care.

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia will break ground by the end of summer for a Specialty Care Center on the roughly nine acres it now owns at the corner of North Gulph Road and South Goddard Boulevard.

CHOP at the Village at Valley Forge, expected to be completed by December, 2014, will replace an existing location the hospital has leased on Mall Boulevard since 1997.

Read more:  http://business-news.thestreet.com/the-mercury/story/chop-build-new-facility-king-prussia-0/1

Allentown Arena Construction On Schedule, Mayor Is Pleased

English: City of Allentown from east side (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Six years ago Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, his city still smarting from losing the Sands casino to Bethlehem, first suggested that an arena might make a fine consolation prize.

Pawlowski on Wednesday, standing at the city’s $272 million arena complex, surrounded by dust and gravel, hard hats and heavy machines, looked downright satisfied.

With construction in full swing, steel and concrete rising from what was once a block of low-end stores and for a time just a muddy hole at Seventh and Hamilton streets, Pawlowski, media in tow, got his first tour of a project that he has been trying to make a reality for most of his time in office.

“It really is amazing when you think about going from the conceptual stage to something that is physically under construction,” Pawlowski said afterward.  ”I wanted to show the amount of planning that has really gone into this construction process.”

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-allentown-hockey-arena-site-tour-20130424,0,2991685.story

Lancaster General’s $50 Million Project At Former Lancaster Family YMCA Site Moves Forward

After receiving approvals more than a year ago to build a new office building and a parking garage on the former Lancaster Family YMCA site, Lancaster General Health put the brakes on the project.

Now it’s full speed ahead.

Andrew Baldo, vice president of project developer Arcadia Properties, on Wednesday sought and received from the city Planning Commission a waiver of preliminary plan approval requirements.

The waiver allows the $50 million project to skip a step and moves it closer to having all approvals in place by late June.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/839506_Lancaster-General-s–50-million-project-at-former-Lancaster-Family-YMCA-site-moves-forward.html#ixzz2QqkIejI3

Pottstown Welcomes 2 New Businesses, 50 Jobs

Location of Pottstown in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  Thumbs up to Steve Bamford!

POTTSTOWN — Following on the heels of the news that downtown Pottstown will lose as many as 75 jobs in the coming months, comes the news that the borough may be gaining as many as 58 jobs at two new businesses soon to be break ground.

The news came Wednesday night when borough council heard about two proposals for two new businesses that want to put up new buildings in the borough.

One, known as Patient First, is part of a chain of 43 urgent care medical centers that has been in business for 43 years and promises to bring 50 jobs into the borough.

“We’re looking to hire locally,” said Carl Wright, founder and president of  The Wright Group, which will construct the building at the site of the former Chinese food restaurant across the parking lot from Ollie’s Bargain Outlet and Just Cabinets.

Read more:

http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130404/NEWS01/130409614/pottstown-welcomes-2-new-businesses-50-jobs#full_story

92-Home Development Proposed In Douglass (Mont.)

Location of Douglass Township in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

DOUGLASS (Mont.) — A developer has proposed clustering 92 single-family homes on 47 acres off Congo Road and leaving the remainder of the 70 acres of the property as open space or park land.

Located on a 117-acre pice of land known as the “Hallowell Tract,” the site is located at the intersection of Congo and Hallowell roads and is a former farm.

In fact, the site is surrounded by farmland that has been permanently protected, said township Supervisor Fred Thiel.

Montgomery County Planner Meredith Curran told the members of the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee Thursday that the project was first submitted in 2005 and so is guided by the previous zoning for that area of town, which allows for one house per acre.

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130329/NEWS01/130329256/92-home-development-proposed-in-douglass-(mont-)#full_story

Changing Skyline: New Cheesecake Factory At 15th And Walnut: A Creamy-Rich Glass Box

English: This is my own work, Public Domain Photograph, not copyrighted Ed Yakovich http://www.flickr.com/photos/10396190@N04 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What kind of building do you get when you cross the über-cool, urban minimalism of the Apple stores with the indulgent, diet-busting excess of the Cheesecake Factory restaurants?

Would you believe an architectural confection that is as visually sublime as it is intellectually rich?

I’ll admit that when I first heard that the popular suburban temple of caloric overload was touching down at 15th and Walnut Streets, the news didn’t exactly stoke my appetite for good design.  I imagined a generic box, done up in flat, lifeless stucco the color of American cheese, elbowing its way onto a corner that has been occupied for the better part of a century by three ordinary, but charming, commercial buildings.

But the architecture gods have smiled on Philadelphia.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/home/20130308_Changing_Skyline__New_Cheesecake_Factory_at_15th_and_Walnut__A_creamy-rich_glass_box.html

Reading City Council Approves Loan Tied To Hotel Project

A 1947 topographic map of the Reading, Pennsylvania area. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At the request of retailer Albert R. Boscov, City Council on Monday approved adding a $1 million city loan to the financing package for the $59 million Doubletree Hotel that Boscov’s nonprofit agency is trying to bring downtown.

Boscov’s Our City Reading is planning the 200-room hotel to be built in the 700 block of Penn Street opposite the Sovereign Center.

The city loan would not come from local tax revenues but from federal funds – so-called Section 108 money – that the city gets to fund development projects.

Boscov’s nonprofit has borrowed millions of dollars in Section 108 funds in the past.  Boscov noted that it’s always paid off the loans early, never taking the allowed 20 years, and this year will make a $1.5 million early repayment of another Section 108 loan.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=434432

Townhome Development Is The Gateway To Pottstown

Mrs. Smith site taken 2009, just model home completed

POTTSTOWN – There’s a building boom under way at the borough’s southern gateway.

A townhome community being built by Media-based Cornell Homes is changing the landscape at South and Hanover streets – land that once was home to some Mrs. Smith’s Pies buildings.

Hanover Square is a community of 118 three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath townhomes, complete with two-car garages – some with views of the Schuylkill River.  So far 18 homes are completed and occupied and another 30 are under construction, according to Cornell Homes President and CEO Greg Lingo.

“It’s really a revival of the entrance to Pottstown,” Lingo said. “But what’s so exciting about this community is its unbelievable price – the houses are selling in the $120s.  And it’s accessible off Route 422.  This is the lowest-priced new home community in all of Montgomery County.”

Read more:  http://business-news.thestreet.com/the-mercury/story/townhome-development-the-gateway-pottstown-1/1

Sinking Spring Focuses On Revitalizing Downtown

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When a group set out to revitalize Sinking Spring’s downtown in 2008, it planned to start with the west side of town.

Then a developer shifted the focus to what’s now known as the Spring Market shopping center in the eastern section.

Now the group is trying to advance a plan for the central district, calling for a new mix of residential and commercial space south of Penn Avenue.

The revitalization group, known as BOSS 2020, for Borough of Sinking Spring 2020, met with an architectural firm and came up with the downtown plan.

Alcon of Sinking Spring contributed $8,000 to the effort.

Read more:   http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=431266

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center East End Expansion Leads To Controversy

English: UPMC Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When UPMC paid $10 million in 2006 for the old Ford Motor Co. building on Baum Boulevard in Bloomfield, jaws dropped at what some considered an exorbitant price, even for a local landmark.

The sale “sort of stopped purchasing for a while because a lot of people thought they could get rich, too,” Pittsburgh Councilman Bill Peduto said. “They thought that if they held out, UPMC would knock with a check with a couple of extra zeroes.”

People did indeed get rich following the sale of the 1915 building that once served as a Ford assembly plant and showroom, but not by holding out as a way to take advantage of the $10 billion health care giant.

They simply owned the right property at the right time when UPMC, with its deep pockets, made a strategic decision to establish a larger East End footprint.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/upmc-east-end-expansion-leads-to-controversy-654780/#ixzz27W8tV2et

Einstein Medical Center Montgomery Ready For Sept. 29 Debut

Location of East Norriton Township in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

EAST NORRITON — The clock is ticking down with last-minute installation work, a required state Department of Health inspection and final cleaning before the doors open Sept. 29 on the $350 million, 146-bed Einstein Medical Center Montgomery (EMCM) hospital on Germantown Pike.

A recent press tour of the five-story facility included working journalists and four aspiring journalists from Gotwals Elementary School. Third-fourth grade teacher Katie Sortino accompanied Yazzmin Hernandez, Amayrami Lopez, Derrick Honeycutt and Zavier Wedderburn as they took notes for a late October edition of the “Healthy Press.”

A crowd of 5,000 to 10,000 local residents are expected at a Sept. 22 “Community Day and Open House,” from noon to 6 p.m., to tour the facility before an official 6 a.m., Sept. 29, hospital opening. Forty to 50 patients at Montgomery Hospital in Norristown will be transferred with six ambulances to EMCM on Sept. 29, starting at 7 a.m., said Beth Duffy, the chief operating officer of EMCM.

Montgomery Hospital had 87 patients on Sept. 5. Hospital administrators will not accept elective procedure patients at Montgomery Hospital close to the closing date to reduce the number of patients requiring transfers.

Fulton Bank’s Expansion Grows By 75 Percent

Plans for Fulton Bank‘s expansion near Lancaster‘s Penn Square may have been delayed by two years, but those plans have also increased in size by 75 percent.

The county’s largest bank now plans an eight-story office building, with a two-level underground parking garage at 23 E. King St.

Project planners on Tuesday provided no cost estimate for the 159.000-square-foot building which will replace the former Sovereign Bank building now on the site.

The building was originally slated for completion in 2013.  In May, Fulton announced it would be begin construction next spring of a 91,000-square-foot, six story building that was due to be completed in spring 2015.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/728196_Fulton-Bank-s-expansion-grows-by-75-percent.html#ixzz25t5BQYml

Proposed 772-Unit Project Hits Washington Township Snag

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A residential development proposed for Washington Township has hit a snag because of recent changes to the water and sewer plans.

Developer Richard Mingey wants to build a 772-unit community on 225 acres just outside of Bally on the southeast side of the Route 100 and Kutztown Road intersection, extending to the west side of Schwenkfelder Road.

The problem arose at a planned residential development hearing before the township supervisors Tuesday. Attorney Amy Good objected that the plans before the board do not reflect the sewer and water service change: from municipal to on-site.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=396254

King Of Prussia Wegmans To Open Its Doors Sunday

Location of Upper Merion Township in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

UPPER MERION TOWNSHIP, PA - “Didn’t there used to be a golf course here?”

There was a gleam in Danny Wegman‘s eye as he cracked a joke, standing on the spot where he and a lot of other folks literally made the earth move – after 16 years of hitches and hurdles.

At a sneak peak of the freshly constructed Wegmans market at 1 Village Drive on Thursday, the company’s amiable CEO said he could hardly believe that his namesake 80th store was three days away from opening in King of Prussia.

The Rochester, N.Y. native recalled how excited his dad, Robert Wegman, was when he first got a glimpse of the North Gulph Road property – then the home of Valley Forge Golf Club – all those years ago.

Read more: http://business-news.thestreet.com/the-times-herald/story/king-prussia-wegmans-open-its-doors-sunday/1

Lehigh And Northampton Transportation Authority Breaks Ground For New $13 Million Garage

wm-license-information-description-missing wm-license-information-description-missing-request LANTA logo.png (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Regional political leaders and transportation officials held a groundbreaking Monday for a new maintenance garage for the Lehigh Valley‘s public bus agency, anticipating growing demand for the service as well for newer hybrid-electric buses.

The Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority faced public opposition in 2009 when the initial plans for the building on LANTA’s property at 1060 Lehigh St., Allentown, showed it encroaching into the parking lot of adjacent Bicentennial Park. The baseball field once was home to the semi-pro Allentown Ambassadors, and the bus garage would have covered 40 percent of Bicentennial’s parking spaces.

LANTA officials reversed gears, having the project redesigned for a garage expansion to the southwest of the existing building, away from the ball field rather than toward it, pushing the new garage close to the edge of the LANTA property.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-lanta-garage-ceremony-20120416,0,5643129.story

McDonald’s $3.5 Million Redo In Sinking Spring

Editor’s note:  Now this is being a good neighbor!  Two Roy’s Rants thumbs up!

The 39-year-old McDonald’s restaurant in Sinking Spring is being razed this week, and a brand-new McDonald’s should be completed by July 15.

The $3.5 million project is a joint venture of McDonald’s Corp. and the private investment of Robert Hughes, owner of the Sinking Spring McDonald’s for the past nine years and owner of three others in the area.

Hughes has included a pocket park in his plans. The park will have benches and outdoor seating for McDonald’s customers, but anyone will be able to use the park, Hughes said.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=379434

GoggleWorks Apartment Project Uses An Unusual Steel Framing Process

Image via Wikipedia

The wraps on the new GoggleWorks apartments on Washington Street in Reading will be long gone by early summer. In the meantime, the $16.7 million building remains swathed in plastic to keep workers warm.

The plastic also has been covering up an unusual construction process based on a metal framing system. Instead of a typical structural steel framework filled in with masonry blocks and wooden planks, it has prefabricated metal framing and walls that stack in place made by ClarkDietrich Building Systems, an Ohio-based provider of steel construction products and services.

Eric Burkey, president of Reading-based Burkey Construction Co., the project’s general contractor, said the walls are set in place and the cold-formed steel joists and metal deck are set before the walls are placed on the floor above. The wall panels literally sit one on top of the other and carry through the overall height of the building.

“This kind of system has been around for a while,” Burkey said. “It just hasn’t been used a lot.”

Read more: http://businessweekly.readingeagle.com/?p=2331

King Of Prussia Mall Adding 122,000 Square-Foot Building On Former Wanamaker’s Site

The old Wanamaker’s store at King of Prussia Mall will meet with a wrecking ball to make way for a new 122,000 square-foot building that will house 10 new stores.  The former Wanamaker’s store has been empty for some time now.

King of Prussia Mall is having a great year and the mall is looking to add more prime space to attract additional retailers.  The new construction will continue through the fall of 2012.

This is the first major redevelopment project at the mall since 2001 when the Pavilion was created at the Court in the former Strawbridge and Clothier store.