Pittsburgh Planning Commission Delays Hearing on Oakland Project from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The developer of an office and hotel complex that's to be part of the Oakland Portal Project today was granted a postponement of a scheduled hearing before the city Planning Commission. The hearing has been tentatively rescheduled for 2 p.m. April 2 in the first floor conference room at 200 Ross St. LW Molnar Associates expects to develop land between Forbes and Fifth Avenues just south of Robinson Street into three high-rise office buildings with a hotel. The buildings as proposed include one at 13 stories and two at eight stories."

'Lost Triangle' Targeted for Acute Face-Lift; Area Called Important Confluence of Hill District and Uptown from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"On a map of the Hill District and Uptown, a small triangle wedges itself between orderly rectangles of street grids. Its boundaries are Reed, Dinwiddie and Colwell streets. Architect Daniel Rothschild calls this piece of the Hill "the lost triangle." Bill Gatti, president of TREK Development Group, says it is "an important confluence of the two neighborhoods.""

North Hills Project Lands First Area Carrabba's from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"AdVenture Development LLC is ready to get going on the 500,000-square-foot town center of the mixed-use master plan called McCandless Crossing on a northern stretch of McKnight Road at Duncan Avenue, offering as appetizer the announcement of three new restaurants and a new store signed on for the project. The company soon will begin site work on the fourth phase of the 1.2 million-square-foot project that will include the region’s first Carrabba’s Italian Grill, along with Bonefish Grill, Longhorn Steakhouse and Home Goods, a home furnishings retailer operated by the owner of TJ Maxx."

Probably good for McCandless; not so good for anyone who needs to drive on McKnight Road.

Making a Bid: Lawrenceville Businesses Weighing Pros and Cons of Tax District" (AmyJo Brown) from the Pittsburgh City Paper
"It's gotten to a point where there is real value in this neighborhood." ... Artists and developers drawn to the area's stock of large, cheap, historic properties have helped to craft a vibrant neighborhood. According to the Lawrenceville Corporation, a community-redevelopment group, more than 230 buildings have been renovated, and since 2010, more than 36 new businesses have opened throughout the community.  "It's really become the most sought-after neighborhood in Pittsburgh right now," says Joe Kelly, the owner of Kelly Custom Furniture and Cabinetry and another early developer, like Desmone, who remembers when the streets were barren."

Vacant Lots on the North Side in Pittsburgh Turning into Gardens from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Rows of blueberry plants fill a city-owned Perry South lot that was once the weedy end zone of many a police chase on Pittsburgh's Charles Street. It is now part of a city lease agreement with the Pittsburgh Project, and the bushes will bear fruit for the neighborhood."

EDITORIAL!!

Privileged Property: The County Must Examine Tax-Exempt Holdings from the Editorial Board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"It's a no-brainer. With 550,000 properties in Allegheny County freshly reassessed and many of their owners due higher tax bills in 2013, the county should routinely examine the validity of tax exemptions given to the properties of nonprofits. It doesn't."

North Fayette Plans Development Blueprint from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"Developing ways to define North Fayette will be one of the objectives in its comprehensive plan, which is a community development blueprint addressing land use, housing, transportation, protection of natural resources, population changes and more."

Bill Would Create Land Bank for Pittsburgh Vacant Property from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A proposed land bank would acquire and expedite the handling of as many as 16,000 vacant, delinquent and abandoned properties."

EDITORIAL!!

Good Land: Councilman Burgess Sees Promise in Vacant Lots from the Editorial Board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Pittsburgh City Council must give some thought to Ricky Burgess's proposal to clean up empty lots and vacant buildings with a land bank."

Burgess Introduces Land Bank Legislation from the Pittsburgh Business Times
"On the heels of Gov. Tom Corbett signing enabling legislation last week, Pittsburgh Councilman Ricky Burgess introduced legislation Wednesday to create a Pittsburgh Land Bank within the city. “The establishment of the Pittsburgh Land Bank is an essential step to transform and rehabilitate the city’s low- and moderate-income communities,” said Burgess, in a prepared statement. “The land bank will substantially improve the appearance, marketability and potential of many Pittsburgh neighborhoods.”"

Pittsburgh Is “Emerald City” with Dozens of Energy-Efficient Buildings from Imagine Pittsburgh
"There’s more than meets the eye to the buildings that dot Pittsburgh’s picturesque skyline and populate its neighborhoods. Many of them — 83 to be exact — are Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified-structures commonly called “green buildings” because their design, materials and operations are easy on the environment and energy usage. Fact:  Pittsburgh – once notoriously tagged “hell with the lid off” because of its environmental pollution– registered three of the first 12 LEED structures in the United States. Fast-forward to today when some 75 percent of new buildings in the city are pursuing LEED certification."

House-Hunting is Happy Here from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"The region ranked as the eighth most affordable for home buyers among 25 major metropolitan areas studied by Interest.com."

Landlords Join Group in Sheraden Improvement Campaign from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Trudy Gray is a pioneering landlord: She's the first to sign an agreement with the West End Alliance as part of its new partnership with landlords to upgrade rentals and motivate tenants to be involved in the Sheraden neighborhood."

Living Large: On Property, UPMC Spends Big and is Taxed Little from the Editorial Board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A Post-Gazette series, "UPMC: Forging a Giant Footprint," raises questions about how state law treats rich nonprofit corporations. ... People around Pittsburgh know that UPMC is big. They just didn't know it was this big. The region's leading health care provider, which has $9.6 billion in annual revenue, 56,000 employees and 20 hospitals, also owns 656 acres of property in Allegheny County worth $1.6 billion. It is the county's largest property owner by value and, because of UPMC's nonprofit status, 86 percent of those holdings are tax-exempt."

Fallout from Breakup of WPAHS-Highmark Deal from the Pittsburgh Business-Times
"Friday's big news was West Penn Allegheny's pullout from its proposed merger with Highmark. It's a story that has major affects on the health care and insurance markets in the Pittsburgh region."

Last in a series!

UPMC Among Nonprofits Eager to Avoid Paying Property Taxes from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"By voluntarily agreeing to pay South Fayette the equivalent of taxes on 50 percent of the assessed value of the property, the $10 billion nonprofit is entering into a contract so unusual that only one other tax-exempt facility in its expansive multicounty network has a similarly structured arrangement -- UPMC Hamot in Erie, Erie County. Having two deals for the same amount -- 50 percent of the assessed value -- occur in the last year certainly caught the eyes of Allegheny County and Pittsburgh officials, who are constantly seeking new revenue sources."
This is the last in an excellent series.  The rest of the series can be found HERE.

Allegheny County Only Found Archives for a Third of UPMC Parcels from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Gaps exist in record of tax-exempt requests, according to a six-monthlong review by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette."

Forging a Giant Footprint (AUDIO) from WESA's program, Essential Pittsburgh 
"Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporters talk about this week's 4 part series on UPMC's growing presence in the region's real estate market. Then Carnegie Library's five year plan..."

Part two of a series!

UPMC East's Land Deals Provoke Questions from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 

Second of a four-part series: This week, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette provides an in-depth look at UPMC's real estate portfolio.

"The health system is forging a giant footprint."

Part one of a series!

Forging a Giant Footprint: UPMC's Sometimes Controversial Appetite for Real Estate from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
First of a four-part series: This week, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will provide an in-depth look at UPMC's real estate portfolio.
"Starting in 1982 in a single building that it didn't own, UPMC over 30 years has acquired and expanded most of the major hospitals in the region, built or purchased a network of 13 senior communities and hundreds of cancer treatment centers, rehabilitation and outpatient clinics and doctors' offices. The result is that UPMC is now Allegheny County's single largest private property owner in terms of the value of that property -- bigger than PNC, bigger than Giant Eagle, bigger than U.S. Steel -- with 656 acres worth $1.6 billion based on the 2002 assessment, 86 percent of it exempt from taxes, according to a six-month review by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. No other charitable organization comes close, with the University of Pittsburgh a distant second with $1 billion in property."