Downtown Pittsburgh Continues On Strong Growth Trajectory

Developers announced about three dozen economic development projects totaling $526 million in Pittsburgh’s Greater Downtown in 2014, capitalizing on dramatic growth in recent years, according to a report released Thursday.

“With more than $5 billion of transformative investment in Downtown Pittsburgh over the last decade, Downtown is well-positioned,” said Jeremy Waldrup, president and CEO of the nonprofit Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/8363736-74/downtown-report-greater#ixzz3aE7Xi4L1
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Developer Reveals Buncher Plans For 400 Strip District Apartments, Townhomes

The Buncher Co. and a Cleveland-based developer said Thursday they are moving ahead with plans to build 400 residential units along the edge of the Allegheny River in the Strip District.

Buncher, which is based in the Strip, ultimately plans to pump more than $400 million into residential and office development on the riverfront, including $100 million on the 400 units.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/7405861-74/plans-buncher-riverfront#ixzz3MITj3mEJ
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South Bethlehem Historic Board Approves 9-Story Building After Previously Panning It

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Northampton County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After voicing strong opposition last month to a proposed 9-story building on West Fourth Street, the South Bethlehem Historic Conservation District voted 5-2 Monday to support the building’s design.

District board Chairwoman Beth Starbuck said she had been very troubled by the building’s height until she realized Hotel Bethlehem also was nine stories and doesn’t stick out badly on Main Street.

“I’m not happy with the scale of this, either, but I’m less freaked out about it — it just never occurred to me that the Hotel Bethlehem is that tall,” she said.

The board makes recommendations to Bethlehem City Council, and board Historic Officer Christine Ussler said there’s a fear if the board is often overruled by council “this developer and other developers will get the sense we don’t count.”

Read more: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2014/10/south_bethlehem_historic_board.html

Corbett Announces $10M In Grants For Almono Project In Hazelwood

Locator map with the Hazlwood neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania highlighted. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Before local developers can build a projected $1 billion in apartments, offices, retail shops and tech suites on the former LTV Steel Corp. site in Hazelwood, they need about $103 million in streets, utility lines and other infrastructure upgrades.

“There’s huge interest in this site, tremendous interest in this site, from developers not only in the region, but across the country,” said Don Smith, president of the Regional Industrial Development Corp., which is managing the project. “Really, it’s all just interest until we can give them some certainty that the site will be ready for their buildings to open.”

Gov. Tom Corbett on Wednesday announced $10 million in state grants to support development at the 178-acre Almono property along the Monongahela River.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/6964700-74/industrial-office-space#ixzz3GLYMNDky
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Gov. Corbett Announces Redevelopment Grant For Former Saks Site, Oliver Building

Trinity Epsicopal with its neighbors, the Oliver Building and the old Gimbels (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Surrounded by an array of Pittsburgh civic and development interests, Gov. Tom Corbett stood in Mellon Square Monday to announce a $4 million state grant to seed the redevelopment of the Henry W. Oliver Building and its neighbor, the former Saks Fifth Avenue department store.

Mr. Corbett told a small crowd overlooking the planned developments that the Henry W. Oliver Building had special interest for him because he had worked in an office there during his career in private practice before joining the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Noting that he had been in the city last week to release state funds for a theater project for Point Park University, Mr. Corbett called Pittsburgh, “a model for redevelopment and smart growth.”

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2014/09/29/Governor-Corbett-announced-redevelopment-grant-for-Downtown-Pittsburgh/stories/201409290199

Montco Commissioners Sponsor Paper Shredding Event In Collegeville

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Norristown, PA – The Montgomery County Commissioners and the Waste System
Authority of Eastern Montgomery County in conjunction with Shred One Security Corp. are
sponsoring a community paper shredding event on Saturday, April 12 from 9 a.m. to noon at
Perkiomen Valley Middle School East, 100 Kagey Road (entrance on Campus Drive) in Collegeville.

Future shredding events are scheduled for Saturday, June 21 at Copper Beach Elementary School in
Glenside, and on Saturday, October 18 at Lower Merion High School in Ardmore.

Montgomery County residents who have paper and documents that should be shredded are
encouraged to take advantage of this free event. No businesses are permitted. Residents are urged to
make sure that the materials they present for shredding do not include plastic, cardboard, or metal.
However, there is no need to remove staples, paper clips, hanging folders, etc.

“Shredding of documents has become important in our lives today for several reasons, not the least of
which is the threat of identity theft,” said Josh Shapiro, chairman of the Montgomery County
Commissioners. “We believe this service is useful, necessary, and will be appreciated by our residents,
and we are very grateful to Shred One and the Waste Authority for their assistance.”

Shred One regularly participates in community shredding events. The company’s mobile trucks
perform all of the paper shredding as you watch. All shredded paper is recycled by Shred One and the
company is currently recycling paper at a rate that saves over 70,000 trees annually.

Dozens Turn Out To Hear About Possible York Artist-Housing Project

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

On Wednesday, Hardway was among the dozens who turned out to hear more about a possible artist-housing project in the city. A henna artist and trained vocalist, Hardway said she is intrigued by the idea of living among other creative people.

But, if the Artspace York project becomes a reality, Hardway wants to be sure its developers include accessibility in their plans — even if she’s not the one who benefits from it.

Hardway said she made that clear when she took a survey, which launched online Wednesday, to gauge the potential viability of a project in York.

Artspace is a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that formed in 1979 with the goal of providing long-term affordable housing for creative people.

Read more: http://www.yorkdispatch.com/breaking/ci_24972229/dozens-turn-out-hear-about-possible-york-artist?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_campaign=hootsuite

Developers Plan $30 Million Makeover Along Second Avenue In Hazelwood

A map of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with its neighborhoods labeled. For use primarily in the list of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A largely vacant stretch of Second Avenue in Hazelwood would be filled with music, youth programming, and commercial and residential space as part of a proposed makeover designed to complement the $1 billion former LTV coke works redevelopment.

Under the plan, the vacant Spahr Building, which was a former G. C. Murphy’s store, would be transformed into programming and performance space for Hazelwood’s faith-based Center of Life organization.

ACTION-Housing Inc. and Washington, D.C.-based Telesis Corp. are partnering on the proposed redevelopment, which also would include an additional 1.5 acres of vacant land or structures besides the Spahr Building, all in the 4800 block of Second Avenue.

City Urban Redevelopment Authority board members are expected to vote Thursday on whether to begin up to 18 months of exclusive negotiations with ACTION-Housing and Telesis for the sale of the properties needed for the projects.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/developers-plan-30m-hazelwood-makeover-706824/#ixzz2hHZveyXq

Phoenixville Residents Voice Opposition To Housing Plan

PHOENIXVILLE — The council meeting room at Borough Hall was filled to the brim while residents strained to listen from the building’s lobby as council heard public comments against a planned development at Friendship Field Tuesday night.

“I think you can pretty much sense the temperament of the community in this council room,” Council President Rich Kirkner told a lawyer representing the development group, Michael B. Murray Jr.

After almost a dozen people got up to voice their opposition to the project set for the corner of Franklin and Fillmore streets, council unanimously voted to strike the project from its agenda amid cheers and applause from those in the audience.

The proposed plan, by Housing Development Corporation MidAtlantic, which focuses on providing affordable housing, called for four-story-tall apartment buildings called Parkview Heights.

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130710/NEWS01/130719984/phoenixville-residents-voice-opposition-to-housing-plan#full_story

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

Is More Low-Income Housing Trying To Sneak Into Pottstown? Rumor Has It!

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

Editor’s note: This email was sent to us from a concerned Pottstown Borough homeowner.  While we tend not to post speculative things, two people told our writer the same tale of woe regarding this matter.  It would seem plausible with Jason’s departure looming on the horizon and Councilor Rhoads’ resignation, some may think this is a good time for a Trojan Horse maneuver??

A concerned citizen writes:

“Yesterday, it was reported that the Pearl Project, low-income housing for seniors by the river is d.o.a.  But what’s coming in through the back door but yet ANOTHER developer with low-income tax credits to ply and where else but Pottstown?  Rumor has it that a meeting is slated, sometime soon, with the newly departing borough manager, Jason Bobst, to discuss low-income house right next door to the former Pearl site, in the Old Shirt Factory.  BUT HEY, weren’t there plans not so long ago that envisioned this building as upscale, market rate condos?  Wouldn’t that vision align with the ULI recommendation to make “magic” on our riverfront?

While Pottstown struggles with re-defining itself we’ve seen the unexpected resignation of a vital member of council and a maybe not-so-unexpected resignation of our beloved Borough Manager.  Come on people, we are reeling from these set backs now is NOT the time to sit idle while the big tax credit investors now try to enter through the back door with their low-income concepts that are wrong, wrong, wrong on every level for Pottstown.  Jason, if you can leave this community with just one more, vital parting good deed….PLEASE JUST SAY NO.  Give us a fighting chance to re-group and redefine, to seek qualified leadership that supports a better vision for Pottstown.  We know that we have so much more to offer and we ask only for your consideration and kindness.  Please leave us with a legacy of hope and a reason to continue to strive.”

This Year, Home Design Is All About You

Wondering what the hot home design trends will be for 2012?  The answer, at least in some instances, is whatever you want it to be.
   
“2012 is going to be an eclectic mix.  It’s not going to be something that’s very definable,” said interior designer Valerie Betz of Studio VB, located at 218 Verbeke Street in Harrisburg. “It’s not going to be this style or this country.  It’s more about taking a deviation and being more eclectic.” 

 

 

 

 

Read more: http://blog.pennlive.com/life/2012/01/this_year_home_design_is_all_a.html

Code Blue To Hold Informational Protest At Pottstown City Hall Prior To Council Meeting

At 6 pm tonight, civic activist group Code Blue is holding an informational protest in front of City Hall, prior to this evening’s 7 pm council meeting.  Code Blue opposes the construction of low-income senior housing along the Schuylkill River at the former Lincoln underwear factory.  The group invites you to come out and learn why they are opposed to this plan.  If you care to join them to demonstrate your displeasure, feel free to stop by.

This is an critical meeting tonight with many important items on the agenda.  You owe it to yourself, as a resident of Pottstown, to come out and make sure your voice is heard.