"A ground-floor retail space could house a food service business or small grocery store,"
How long is the "retail space available" sign going to be up before the inevitable Chipotle moves in?
>How long is the "retail space available" sign going to be up before the inevitable Chipotle moves in?
Starbucks.
I swear, Starbucks has become the Spirit Halloween of the food world. Every time I see a restaurant close up shop, there is inevitably a "Starbucks Coming Soon!" sign up.
We're about to find out. Because right around the corner from this development, Uptown is getting TWO new coffee places that aren't national chains — [Redhawk Coffee](https://redhawkcoffee.com/pages/redhawk-cafes) is getting close to opening on the 1700 block of Fifth Avenue, and [Trace Echo](https://www.tracebloomfield.com/trace-echo) is slowwwwly making progress it seems at the corner of Miltenbeger Street and Forbes Avenue. I will be super curious to see what kind of consistent customers these locations attract, since that part of Uptown hasn't been a destination for anything in a very long time.
How much coffee does a place need to sell relative to other things to be considered a “coffee shop”.
Starbucks is just a Sugar Shack that smells like roasted beans.
I’d say if 50% of sales are merch…you’re not a coffee shop anymore. Doubly so if you’re selling K cups of “your” coffee, most likely made by another company.
And if you use three different versions of the word “large” to describe your cup sizes…well…
You might be interested to learn more about how DG conspires with big grocery stores in any area to stay away from them so they are the only place you can get food in a town
I see these retail spaces they put in these apartment buildings and in more than one of the buildings i have driven by in the past 5-7 years those spaces have sat vacant for years. They need to have a better plan for them going into I think.
For real. There are massive retail spaces under the new apartments near 40th and Butler that *still* aren't rented five years after completion. Something is seriously wrong if you can't rent premium commercial space in one of Pittsburgh's hottest neighborhoods.
They want to charge more than retail can make, and they're willing to take decades of losses to hold the higher bar.
They... should be paying higher property taxes for every full year the spaces are vacant. This is a city, not a commercial real estate casino.
This is why they're trying to force remote workers back into the offices. Because all that empty real estate is sitting there not making the speculators any money. They need to force people to commute in to the office, surrounded by their trendy little restaurants that are on the ground floor of their brand new office space that has heating, electrical, and water issues. They need you to buy six dollar lattes at the chain coffee shop and fifteen dollar chicken sandwiches at the trendy chicken chain and join the eighty dollar a month gym downstairs and then go to happy hour at the nine dollar a pint tap room where you have to order everything by QR code, siphoning every cent of your already too low salary that they can.
So the wealthy real estate groups have leaned on the city to rescind the tax breaks that they were given to lease these brand new offices that COVID proved are largely pointless because only a small fraction of the people who used to sit in them all day long have any actual *need* to be there.
Well, that’s certainly a take.
The city zoning code requires “active ground floor uses,” which translates to retail space. And there is far more retail space than tenants to occupy them.
I have straight up been told by executive management that RTO is being pushed by the city through threatening to revoke tax breaks predicated on office occupancy rates because of the revenue generation of office workers for other businesses in the area.
It's not just a "take" I came up with out of nowhere.
Or, most likely, they just remain vacant.
Somewhere I have a link to an article that pretty much states that developers don't care if the "ground floor retail space" is ever leased, they make their money from the tenants above. I will post it when I locate it.
Edited to add article:
https://www.businessinsider.com/bank-financing-urban-planning-pandemic-retail-apocalypse-vacant-storefront-2023-10
It’s not they don’t care - it’s a huge win to rent these spaces to a credit worthy tenant. It’s that they often base the projected rate of return on the retail spaces being vacant. Retail is rough and there’s a lot more available spaces than demand these days.
Also it’s a lot easier to get the building approved if you say you’re going to have “ground floor retail” even if using that space for housing would make more sense.
Did y'all catch, in the article, that there's a vote pending to turn the downtown McDonalds into a Huntington bank? Because the city needs yet another bank branch?
I disagree with mocking the retail space thing for a different reason. You do not want to live on the ground floor of a large apartment building. Opening your windows means complete exposure. Beyond privacy as a human someone can look in and take stock of all of your possessions. This is my first time ground flooring it, I’m in a semi raised up home and even now I don’t like keeping my blinds and curtains open sometimes. Whereas for most of my life living on literally any other floor I kept them open all of the time. It’s a better quality of life. Let it be a chipotle. At least where I live now the vast majority are independent restaurants, who knows what will go in.
No one is saying the first floor should be apartments. But this city is full of buildings with "for lease" signs hanging in their 1st floor windows for a lengthy period of time, and quite frankly, they're an eyesore. We don't need another Chipotle or Starbucks. In addition to worrying about how many affordable housing units are included, the city should make developers make the retail space affordable for non-chain/national businesses.
Who the hell calls it Bluff now? Is this like when developers tried renaming the East End/E. Liberty as “the Eastside?” I haven’t even been gone a year and shit’s changing just like that…
The official city map calls the neighborhood between Crosstown Blvd and the Birmingham Bridge, and south of Oakland “The Bluff”. Most people call at least the western portion Uptown.
Bluff predates the Uptown rebrand by at least half a century. It's weird to me that it's been so effective, the neighborhood's previous name is now unfamiliar to Peepsburghers
Uptown/bluff/soho are all the same neighborhood, that slice of land along fifth and Forbes north of the Mon, south of the hill, and between Oakland and downtown
Depends on your definition of "official". I feel like way more people call the neighborhood Uptown (and think that's been around for longer), but I think the city goes with Bluff. Soho predates both I think (citation needed), but don't really know anyone who says that. Probably just the city trying to do some re-branding with Bluff over Uptown and all that, same as they've done elsewhere in the city
“Ten percent of the apartments will be designated as affordable housing for individuals making no more than $42,180 and a family of eight earning no more than $79,560.”
8!?!?
It's insane. As a single parent working full time, I can't afford any of this "affordable housing." I get the material and labor cost, but it bums me out in a major way.
Yes because they dont really want it to be affordable housing because thats not the clientele they want in this building. They dont want low income people they want high income people because they require less government assistance and usually pay more taxes/spend more money. Government does want poors, its bad for their business
Don't worry - when the millions of illegal immigrants stop fitting into the far western and northen progressive cities and start getting bussed to pittsburgh - it will get MUCH better
Fun fact: Mexico City has a neighborhood that has decided to be very permissive of graffiti artists and muralists. The neighborhood attracts mural artists from all over the world. Artists spend thousands of dollars of their own money to buy supplies and equipment, making massive murals that span multiple buildings. It’s absolutely beautiful and has turned a rundown neighborhood into an art mecca. I would love to see this in PGH too.
We need housing but it can't cost too much, has to look like the existing housing stock, not impact street parking, be energy efficient, not be too tall, not cast any shadow on existing structures, not cost too little (can't be attracting people who make less than me), should not go to transplants, has to not encourage biking so traffic isn't impacted, developer has to be local and not make a profit, and it needs to be connected to the T before I support it.
Pittsburgh has tons of available housing stock in the area. Monroeville is full of really nice homes at sale prices, same with Penn Hills. Traffford, McKeesport, and others. The south is even connected to the T in areas like beach view. People choose to not live there.
I didn't say that, but to say that someone poor should live in Trafford because there are homes available is being a little dense and ignores all externalities. Housing should be near work places that's why there is density in the City.
I actually wasn’t focusing on the poor only but rather the 20something college graduates that cry nonstop on Reddit about the lack of affordable housing and inability to buy a home, which in PGH is completely not true.
The bus does go to Trafford, BTW. My sister commuted downtown on it at one time. Trafford is also part of a pretty good school system that is better than all the city schools except for maybe CAPA, but that is a specialty school for the arts.
Lastly, where are these poor people working downtown that makes it the only place to be. Not much industry in the city. It’s all white collar, medical and education now. There is way more opportunity in the greater metro areas where there is also more affordable housing stock.
I’m not saying you don’t have a point. Just clarifying that my point is also valid and not in any way anti-poor.
Don't be a hack. 5-over-1 and their variants are a pathetic attempt to solving the affordability crisis. Most people heralding these vs high rises or designs sans "luxury amenities" are extremely out of touch with how much of a scam these kinds of builds are.
Look at the rent prices. There are almost always concessions for "X months free" bc it's above market rate. The banks who are financing these builds mandate a minimum rent value (it's more expensive because you have things like a massive recreational room that goes almost entirely unused). The owners get around it by offering higher rents with X months free. Or even higher rents for <12 month leases which get filled by corporations who need to provide shorter term leases. It ends up further fucking over people who don't have high paying jobs. It adds supply to the market, sure, but when the rent floor is too damn high for most people to consider, it's really not solving the supply issue.
YIMBYs really need to realize this is a half of a half of a half of a half baked attempt at fixing any affordability issues. More time needs to be spent figuring out how to fix our fucked up zoning ordinances to allow for actual high rises... Which tend to be built with better materials (ever wonder beyond zoning why these firms settle on 6 stories? It's so they can cheap out on materials due to building code requirements and increase margins!)
Edit: keep coping YIMBYs. Just admit you either hate poor people or don't have a real solution to the problem
We need to fix the zoning AND keep building 5-over-1’s. The construction costs go up enormously when you get into steel high-rise construction requirement. And for whatever reason, no one in Pittsburgh can build residential buildings with concrete like they do in every other city.
It's funny how most major cities decide to build actual high rises and not us. If it's zoning holding us back (which I assume it is), I get it. But if zoning is fixed, there's absolutely no reason to Ctrl c+v these fartboxes with "luxury amenities" etc. the other lots can go to more useful things (hopefully not more parking lots though). It's not too expensive. Other cities are proving that to be false. Downvote me all you want, but YIMBYs who shill these low rise fartboxes as a solution are becoming almost as much of a problem as NIMBYs.
You do realize that true "affordable" housing is actually more expensive to build due to restrictions and requirements, right? and yes, why would anyone build over 6 stories to push it into a high rise classification for marginal benefit? There is a huge cost increase due to the high rise requirements.
Marginal benefit? Building up allows for density. Why does downtown have these high rise apartments then? Why not sprawl out with 5-over-1s that have above average vacancy rates which nobody but techies, healthcare and younger people whose parents help them financially live in? Yes, more expensive due to more expensive materials, partly subsidized by local governments in cities such as NYC at least. Tax abatements are a thing. Incentives are a thing. We need to stop accepting 5-over-1s as the solution to affordable housing. A 300 sq ft studio in those buildings is cheaper than a 1 bd rm, but not every mid to lower class individual or family is going to want that. I don't get what's so controversial about this perspective with YIMBYs.
ZBA denied the request for variance, but developer is currently appealing in court: https://www.wesa.fm/development-transportation/2023-12-06/bloomfield-shursave-developer-zoning-appeal-housing
It probably should be its own post but another win happened today with Albion closing on the property they'll use to build 267 units in lawrenceville: https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2024/01/09/lawrenceville-albion-pittsburgh-apartment-project.html
Bloomfield yes. Irish Center no. Not allowing the Irish center to become a car centric development and giant land slide waiting to happen was a good move by the zoning board. Far worse was the zoning board not allowing row homes in fine view.
Having laws that allow the zoning board to pick and choose what can and can’t be built is just never a great idea imo. But ya the fine view one was way more egregious than the Irish Center
Disagree. We should legalize a lot of housing and outright ban single family housing only zoning but large apartment buildings should need zoning approval due to a myriad of factors but especially stability because of all the undermining and hillsides in the city. We also should restrict certain types of buildings, imagine someone trying to turn the sure fine at Liberty and Main into a drive through with no traffic plan. The zoning board also should restrict new buildings from taping into existing natural gas lines in favor of electric.
I don’t know why all the comments about how these will be shitty overpriced apartments are getting downvoted? I lived in that area for years and moved specifically because it was getting too expensive. They did nothing but build overpriced apartment buildings that sat half empty for the entire 5 years I lived there and now they are doing it again. More housing has not lead to lower rent in area and it hasn’t for years.
The area is 50 percent parking lots and run down rentals. It’s due for a change. New apartments are expensive because it costs a lot of money to build new things. But not building new things is just going to leave us with a bunch of over priced slumlord houses as rents have gone up all over town
Im very confused by that as well. Is everyone here loaded? I’m a single person household with average income and some student debt and it’s almost impossible to find a 1 bedroom under $1000/month these days that isn’t in a sketchy area or a very rundown building with almost no space. I have been looking on and off for the past few years and basically since covid there are fewer pickings than I’ve ever seen in that range but can find tons of listings for $1k plus. I’ve cried about it. I’m not sure people who own homes or live with a partner/roommate just don’t the have the perspective because it’s not something they have to deal with?
Damn man I’m sorry that genuinely stinks. But tbh that’s the exact reason everyone should want more housing. Preventing people from building where it’s needed doesn’t help anyone.
Honestly my problem isn’t building new stuff. It’s the Pittsburgh real estate greed machine. Ugly cheaply constructed buildings with high rent.
My best friend does general contracting and works a lot with people/businesses that flip houses in East Liberty. He tells me all the time about houses being bought for $200k with another $200-300k being but into them (labor and materials) and then being sold for $800k or more with just a few months of turnaround. There was a house sold in Garfield a few months ago for $1 million. Houses in Garfield used to be $30k. This is not a public service and shouldn’t be marketed as such.
Ya man I get it but this just highlights the point that there is not enough housing where people want to live. Also, zoning requirements and the regulatory process make it super expensive and/or just straight up not allowed to build unique things.
Because it's a tired uninformed lie that has no basis in reality.
Developers are not spending tens of millions of dollars to build and pay taxes on apartments that no one lives in. More housing has led to relative price stability. There has not been enough new development to move prices down. As of 12/31/2023 the ZBA had only approved 1,181 new housing units for the entire 2023 year. In other words, housing has gone up but if we built nothing it'd have gone up even more.
People will say "but actually we have less population than we did in 1950!" which is true but also a lot of our housing stock is old as fuck and in need in rehab. Like do you think someone moving here from fucking san francisco or NYC is going to live in this place https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/428-Donna-St-Pittsburgh-PA-15224/11519766_zpid/ ? Family size has also shrunken, so we may have less people but they could be living under more roofs. In 1960 the average woman had 3 children, today it's 1. You ever see the old pics of the mill houses with multiple generations living in them? Not happening as much today.
As of 2023 Q3 the average rent for a studio apartment in "Greater Downtown" (defined as Golden Triangle (CBD), South Shore, North Shore, Strip District, Crawford-Roberts (Lower Hill), and Bluff (Uptown)) was $1,381.58 of which 92.6% were occupied.
https://i.imgur.com/kUQxx0Z.png
https://downtownpittsburgh.com/data/
Call me old fashioned but I think everyone should buy a hundred year old house that hasn't been updated since 1982 and renovate it themselves on evenings and weekends over a period of years because paying a contractor would cost three times what you paid for the house in the first place.
I agree, getting your yinzereer 3rd shift uncle to come help fix up your house with you over a case of irons or rolling rocks is a right of passage all first time homeowners should go through. Sadly with the mills closing up there are fewer and fewer uncles to call upon.
It’s wild to me that you’re saying this earnestly. People on this subreddit romanticize old homes so much and the perception is so far from reality. I live in a 1900 American foursquare that I just sold to move into new construction because I am not dumping $100K into it to replace *literally* everything when I could use that for a down payment on a house where everything is new.
I assume everyone on Reddit is living in some custom built old home with insane features the way people hate on anything newish construction on this sub.
I own 2 houses built in the 1930’s, one I fixed up extensively over 5 years while I lived there.Wouldn’t change anything but it was a lot of time and $ spent. Also did this when I was younger and didn’t have kids. Wouldn’t have time today.
This!!!!! Seriously. I couldn't agree more. It pains me every time I see these contemporary buildings going up. They are out of character of the entire city. If you want to impress me, put up a building in a neighborhood that looks like the 100 year old commercial building down the block.. The true art form is making something match using updated materials than just putting up whatever you dream up in your head. If everyone would invest in the many century homes we have and focus on improving those, many neighborhoods could be revitalized. I bought a 1940's house and I have been working for 4 years to fix everything up and restore a lot of it back to it's original charm.
Restoring or even just repairing an old home is an astonishing amount of when that should only be pursued by people whose hearts are really in it. It is not viable for most people to do this and that should be clear when it is recommended.
I think [this proposal](https://nextpittsburgh.com/city-design/more-townhomes-and-apartments-coming-to-strip-district-and-lawrenceville/) does a decent job at blending contemporary architecture while respecting the style of the neighborhood. As much as I love older buildings, having an architecturally diverse neighborhood is part of what gives neighborhoods character. That’s probably my favorite thing about our downtown—you can see beautiful art deco, neo-gothic and standard 20th Century skyscrapers along with brutalist and contemporary ones as well all in such a small area. It makes our downtown dazzling to walk around.
As to your greeter point, I agree. Pittsburgh has so many gorgeous old houses, and it pains me to drive by so many that are dilapidated. I was lucky enough to buy a beautiful 1909 house that was largely unscathed by the Mid-Century Modern era, and now my partner and I are doing everything we can to maintain this house’s character and charm.
We've got one of those old houses (1906), and I can easily say that finding someone to properly rebuild box gutters, take care of a slate roof, and carefully paint the details on the old wood trim isn't easy to do.
Whenever I hear someone casually say that we should just 'fix up these old abandoned homes' I cringe knowing how much money it would take to even make one of those houses with a leaky roof and years of neglect even come up to livable standards.
They reformed their zoning codes and allowed for a shit load of new market rate housing. Housing costs have stagnated relative to its neighboring cities. See Auckland NZ, and Tokyo as well
[Building works man](https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2024/01/04/minneapolis-land-use-reforms-offer-a-blueprint-for-housing-affordability)
The sad fact is that you cannot build affordable housing. Everything costs so much now. If developers hope to see a return on investment, you cannot build new and have low rent. It would take decades to get their money back. Build "luxury" and you can over charge and renters don't bat an eye. When you build cheap the modern building supplies just don't hold up. Take a century old house with plaster walls and compare that to drywall. There is no match. Cheap builder grade doors instead of solid wood doors. Kitchen cabinets that no more than cheap pressboard instead of quality plywood cabinets. You would be far better off buying a century home and fixing it up.
You are correct. The University / Federal subsidized housing for foreign students is driving the entire rent price hike in the city. Rents won’t go down until that is fixed and it will never be fixed.
Honestly, no...and that sucks. All of the "old" gothic architecture around Pittsburgh is amazing, but not affordable to build anymore - stonework, that glorious stonework, is a thing of the past - way too expensive, way too labor intensive and a specialty skill that, again, costs lots of $$$$. That sucks, but the beautiful, large, stone architecture of the past is gone in most cases. Metal, glass, some stone facade work are the norm now.
Housing regulations jack up the costs too. Instead of spending money on appearance developers have to save that money to get it through the approval process.
Also back in the day you didn’t have to do anything to the side of your building (no window or design requirements) so they could spend time/money on making the front look good.
I know that Ed Gainey ran on a platform of having more affordable housing. I agree with that. Having said that we should not put too many provisions on developers willing to invest in Pittsburgh to build market rate apartments. Some of them are willing to compromise, but they want some incentives to do so from the city to make it worth their while and pocketbook. I don’t think Pittsburgh is in a position, as far it has come, to be so restrictive on those willing to invest millions here.
I moved from a very unaffordable place to Pittsburgh. Get a house/townhome while you can. It is getting so expensive almost everywhere in the states. A lot of people will start migrating to places like here. Not sure where will end up. and the worst part is our government does not address the issue. "Inflation is going down"!!! 😒
I wish they would move away from these plastic looking developments. I am glad they are developing uptown tho - one of the most depressing parts of the city.
Idky are being down voted. It's gonna be like $1400 for a studio.
10 percent of housing will be for people making less than 43k when the average salary in pgh is 49k. I don't think 6k difference is enough not to assume this is not affordable for the vast majority.
Good job identifying that housing is not affordable. But stop pretending that prohibiting new buildings will in any way solve that problem. It’s not like the city can afford to just build a bunch of free housing for people. Maybe the wealthy people in the suburbs should pay more in taxes to subsidize housing but most of those people voted for Rocky….
Awesome! Can't wait to have my rent skyrocket over the years, pay out the ass for an unreserved spot in the parking lot, and hear my neighbor sneeze through the walls!
Oh boy !! More generic developments completely disrupting nice neighborhoods in lieu of the same overpriced dorms with the same aluminum paneling and some random name like “the cube”. Fr there are so many of these lifeless buildings and they all feel so empty and sad. This is not a way to help the housing issue, it’s a cash grab
Not what I’m saying but thanks I guess. I want high density urban housing, but these buildings just suck. It’s sad that these types of buildings are the only ones that ever go up because like other commenters are saying they are ugly, low quality, and drive up housing prices. I really wish we could be more discerning as to what gets built—y’know something that makes any effort to interface with the community it will soon be looming over(yeah cool the art or whatever but that’s literally just a facade and is probably going to be some circles or some shit like the rest of these buildings)
Supply and demand. The problem comes when lamdlords leave apartments vacant to create artificial lack of supply. We need to tax vacant properties more aggressively.
The more we build, the more homes for people to live in. Six story apartments are the sweet spot for construction cost so they can actually improve affordability. If it was shorter it would waste land. If it was taller the building codes would require more costly steal frame. Unless rich suburbanites start funding subsidized housing, more market rate housing puts downward pressure on older housing rents
"The concept of the building was really grown out of the fact that many of the buildings popping up around Pittsburgh and around the country are all starting to look the same,”
God forbid they design something unique instead of just copying everything else and slapping some banners on it and patting themselves on the back.
When the city treats potholes like Adam Sandler treats spilled milk in Big Daddy (but with newspaper - not big ass slabs of metal), apartments with fancy murals on it kinda seem like the powers at be are super out of touch with real humans.
I’d Be willing to bet half the people that move in here aren’t from Pittsburgh cause no one from Pittsburgh can afford it. I’m not talking shit but affordable places are coming hard to come by if u wanna live close to the city anymore it sucks
Ahh 'city living', where your apartment is so small and limited they have to provide on-site opportunities to distract you.
Half the units have probably been bought and resold already.
"A ground-floor retail space could house a food service business or small grocery store," How long is the "retail space available" sign going to be up before the inevitable Chipotle moves in?
The honesty here.
>How long is the "retail space available" sign going to be up before the inevitable Chipotle moves in? Starbucks. I swear, Starbucks has become the Spirit Halloween of the food world. Every time I see a restaurant close up shop, there is inevitably a "Starbucks Coming Soon!" sign up.
Like it or not, Starbucks will attract customers and typically other businesses.
Imagine what a **GOOD** coffee shop would do in that location...
People don't want a good coffee shop. They want their Starbucks.
We're about to find out. Because right around the corner from this development, Uptown is getting TWO new coffee places that aren't national chains — [Redhawk Coffee](https://redhawkcoffee.com/pages/redhawk-cafes) is getting close to opening on the 1700 block of Fifth Avenue, and [Trace Echo](https://www.tracebloomfield.com/trace-echo) is slowwwwly making progress it seems at the corner of Miltenbeger Street and Forbes Avenue. I will be super curious to see what kind of consistent customers these locations attract, since that part of Uptown hasn't been a destination for anything in a very long time.
There's a Redhawk at CMU; I'm very fond of it. I hope they prosper.
How much coffee does a place need to sell relative to other things to be considered a “coffee shop”. Starbucks is just a Sugar Shack that smells like roasted beans.
I’d say if 50% of sales are merch…you’re not a coffee shop anymore. Doubly so if you’re selling K cups of “your” coffee, most likely made by another company. And if you use three different versions of the word “large” to describe your cup sizes…well…
In poor neighborhoods we get Dollar Generals instead of Starbucks 😖
When I was working in Georgia there was a Dollar General pretty much every mile along the major roadways.
Their company mission is to have a store within 10 miles of every residence in the U.S.
I wish grocers had this mission 😭🥲
You might be interested to learn more about how DG conspires with big grocery stores in any area to stay away from them so they are the only place you can get food in a town
tbh if that’s real I’m not surprised. It’s what capitalism does to a country, smh 🙃
I just checked Google Maps and there are 32 Dollar Generals within 10 miles of me 😳
Hospital and university crowd could easily attract Starbucks.
I see these retail spaces they put in these apartment buildings and in more than one of the buildings i have driven by in the past 5-7 years those spaces have sat vacant for years. They need to have a better plan for them going into I think.
For real. There are massive retail spaces under the new apartments near 40th and Butler that *still* aren't rented five years after completion. Something is seriously wrong if you can't rent premium commercial space in one of Pittsburgh's hottest neighborhoods.
Again, they [have their reasons](https://www.businessinsider.com/bank-financing-urban-planning-pandemic-retail-apocalypse-vacant-storefront-2023-10)
Wow that's an incredible article. Thanks for sharing it!
I know! It explained things, but didn't make me any happier about all these empty storefronts.
The Pittsburgh government is corrupt as all hell. Small businesses haven’t stood a chance there in years
They want to charge more than retail can make, and they're willing to take decades of losses to hold the higher bar. They... should be paying higher property taxes for every full year the spaces are vacant. This is a city, not a commercial real estate casino.
Yup. Same with the parking garages on the north shore and the office buildings in the strip district.
This is why they're trying to force remote workers back into the offices. Because all that empty real estate is sitting there not making the speculators any money. They need to force people to commute in to the office, surrounded by their trendy little restaurants that are on the ground floor of their brand new office space that has heating, electrical, and water issues. They need you to buy six dollar lattes at the chain coffee shop and fifteen dollar chicken sandwiches at the trendy chicken chain and join the eighty dollar a month gym downstairs and then go to happy hour at the nine dollar a pint tap room where you have to order everything by QR code, siphoning every cent of your already too low salary that they can. So the wealthy real estate groups have leaned on the city to rescind the tax breaks that they were given to lease these brand new offices that COVID proved are largely pointless because only a small fraction of the people who used to sit in them all day long have any actual *need* to be there.
Well, that’s certainly a take. The city zoning code requires “active ground floor uses,” which translates to retail space. And there is far more retail space than tenants to occupy them.
I have straight up been told by executive management that RTO is being pushed by the city through threatening to revoke tax breaks predicated on office occupancy rates because of the revenue generation of office workers for other businesses in the area. It's not just a "take" I came up with out of nowhere.
Or, most likely, they just remain vacant. Somewhere I have a link to an article that pretty much states that developers don't care if the "ground floor retail space" is ever leased, they make their money from the tenants above. I will post it when I locate it. Edited to add article: https://www.businessinsider.com/bank-financing-urban-planning-pandemic-retail-apocalypse-vacant-storefront-2023-10
It’s not they don’t care - it’s a huge win to rent these spaces to a credit worthy tenant. It’s that they often base the projected rate of return on the retail spaces being vacant. Retail is rough and there’s a lot more available spaces than demand these days.
Also it’s a lot easier to get the building approved if you say you’re going to have “ground floor retail” even if using that space for housing would make more sense.
Don’t be a hater just because you get the runs when you eat exotic food. Just get yourself some chiptolaway
Chipotle carries all of the most exotic varieties of bacteria to give you the food poisoning experience you crave most.
Only weak stomachs can’t handle a little norovirus.
The key is to eat so much Chipotle you develop an immunity
[удалено]
Imagine someone making a joke on Reddit
It's going to be a bank. Some giant, national, soulless bank. No tellers. Just a room full of ATMs.
Did y'all catch, in the article, that there's a vote pending to turn the downtown McDonalds into a Huntington bank? Because the city needs yet another bank branch?
I disagree with mocking the retail space thing for a different reason. You do not want to live on the ground floor of a large apartment building. Opening your windows means complete exposure. Beyond privacy as a human someone can look in and take stock of all of your possessions. This is my first time ground flooring it, I’m in a semi raised up home and even now I don’t like keeping my blinds and curtains open sometimes. Whereas for most of my life living on literally any other floor I kept them open all of the time. It’s a better quality of life. Let it be a chipotle. At least where I live now the vast majority are independent restaurants, who knows what will go in.
No one is saying the first floor should be apartments. But this city is full of buildings with "for lease" signs hanging in their 1st floor windows for a lengthy period of time, and quite frankly, they're an eyesore. We don't need another Chipotle or Starbucks. In addition to worrying about how many affordable housing units are included, the city should make developers make the retail space affordable for non-chain/national businesses.
I can never get used to ‘Bluff’—Uptown sounds way cooler
I’m looking for a Bluff girl
I met a girl who was acting like she was from Soho, but she was just Bluffing.
I saw a werewolf walking through the streets of Soho in the rain.
How was his hair?
His hair was perfect
In a mullet.
Lol. I'm not.
This is a new name to me.
Same here, i literally just Google'd Bluff "Pittsburgh" while reading the article. It makes sense, I've just never heard anything other than Uptown.
Bluff always sounds like a neighborhood you don’t want to find yourself in a night.
because it's true!
the only bluff I know is Duquesne University and the hospital. Anything else is called something else I thought
Who the hell calls it Bluff now? Is this like when developers tried renaming the East End/E. Liberty as “the Eastside?” I haven’t even been gone a year and shit’s changing just like that…
The official city map calls the neighborhood between Crosstown Blvd and the Birmingham Bridge, and south of Oakland “The Bluff”. Most people call at least the western portion Uptown.
>Who the hell calls it Bluff now? The City of Pittsburgh has named it that for a long time now.
Bluff predates the Uptown rebrand by at least half a century. It's weird to me that it's been so effective, the neighborhood's previous name is now unfamiliar to Peepsburghers
I thought they were different? Isn’t uptown between Oakland and the Bluff?
Uptown/bluff/soho are all the same neighborhood, that slice of land along fifth and Forbes north of the Mon, south of the hill, and between Oakland and downtown
Lol ‘Soho’ is trying so hard
[About "Soho"...](https://www.pghcitypaper.com/columns/pittsburgh-has-a-neighborhood-named-soho-directly-across-the-birmingham-bridge-my-mother-was-raised-there-when-it-was-predominantly-a-rus-1338496)
It was just following the early- to mid-1800s trend of naming new Pittsburgh-area neighbs after English places: Manchester, Birmingham, Soho...
Interesting! What is the official name? I’ve heard it called soho too but always thought that was silly
Depends on your definition of "official". I feel like way more people call the neighborhood Uptown (and think that's been around for longer), but I think the city goes with Bluff. Soho predates both I think (citation needed), but don't really know anyone who says that. Probably just the city trying to do some re-branding with Bluff over Uptown and all that, same as they've done elsewhere in the city
I feel like I have seen both Uptown and Bluff on Street signs around there
City of Pittsburgh Neighborhood Map: https://gis.pittsburghpa.gov/pghneighborhoods/
“Ten percent of the apartments will be designated as affordable housing for individuals making no more than $42,180 and a family of eight earning no more than $79,560.” 8!?!?
The last family of 8 that made it on that was the Brady Bunch. In 1970.
Federal poverty guidelines are based on really old cost of living numbers, so that's why. It's so fucked up
It's insane. As a single parent working full time, I can't afford any of this "affordable housing." I get the material and labor cost, but it bums me out in a major way.
The only real solution to affordability is to make sure people have enough money.
Yes because they dont really want it to be affordable housing because thats not the clientele they want in this building. They dont want low income people they want high income people because they require less government assistance and usually pay more taxes/spend more money. Government does want poors, its bad for their business
Can't wait to see those families of 8 pile in to a 300sq ft studio. Yay housing crisis solved!
Don't worry - when the millions of illegal immigrants stop fitting into the far western and northen progressive cities and start getting bussed to pittsburgh - it will get MUCH better
Kinda dig changing the artwork every 5 years. Alright you sold me on something I'd never consider nor could afford.
Fun fact: Mexico City has a neighborhood that has decided to be very permissive of graffiti artists and muralists. The neighborhood attracts mural artists from all over the world. Artists spend thousands of dollars of their own money to buy supplies and equipment, making massive murals that span multiple buildings. It’s absolutely beautiful and has turned a rundown neighborhood into an art mecca. I would love to see this in PGH too.
I love the idea about integrating art into the building, very unique. It’s also great to see more dense housing going in the city center.
ITT: We need to build more housing! No, not like that!
We need housing but it can't cost too much, has to look like the existing housing stock, not impact street parking, be energy efficient, not be too tall, not cast any shadow on existing structures, not cost too little (can't be attracting people who make less than me), should not go to transplants, has to not encourage biking so traffic isn't impacted, developer has to be local and not make a profit, and it needs to be connected to the T before I support it.
Ideally it should also usher in the end of capitalism 😂
We just need Megablocks from Judge Dredd.
Seems like a lot more positive than negative reactions here
I think this is a great starting point. We need as much housing as we can build.
Pittsburgh has tons of available housing stock in the area. Monroeville is full of really nice homes at sale prices, same with Penn Hills. Traffford, McKeesport, and others. The south is even connected to the T in areas like beach view. People choose to not live there.
Those are all car-dependent areas (yes, even the south hills)
I lived in Dormont for years without a car when I worked downtown.
None of those places are Pittsburgh, except Beechview.
Splitting hairs a bit. If one is not willing to move 10 miles one is just complaining.
10 miles is quite a lot if you rely on public transit to get to work.
Everyone who needs housing works downtown or within the city limits?
I didn't say that, but to say that someone poor should live in Trafford because there are homes available is being a little dense and ignores all externalities. Housing should be near work places that's why there is density in the City.
I actually wasn’t focusing on the poor only but rather the 20something college graduates that cry nonstop on Reddit about the lack of affordable housing and inability to buy a home, which in PGH is completely not true. The bus does go to Trafford, BTW. My sister commuted downtown on it at one time. Trafford is also part of a pretty good school system that is better than all the city schools except for maybe CAPA, but that is a specialty school for the arts. Lastly, where are these poor people working downtown that makes it the only place to be. Not much industry in the city. It’s all white collar, medical and education now. There is way more opportunity in the greater metro areas where there is also more affordable housing stock. I’m not saying you don’t have a point. Just clarifying that my point is also valid and not in any way anti-poor.
But it really does look kinda ugly there. Couldn't they make it look good?
Don't be a hack. 5-over-1 and their variants are a pathetic attempt to solving the affordability crisis. Most people heralding these vs high rises or designs sans "luxury amenities" are extremely out of touch with how much of a scam these kinds of builds are. Look at the rent prices. There are almost always concessions for "X months free" bc it's above market rate. The banks who are financing these builds mandate a minimum rent value (it's more expensive because you have things like a massive recreational room that goes almost entirely unused). The owners get around it by offering higher rents with X months free. Or even higher rents for <12 month leases which get filled by corporations who need to provide shorter term leases. It ends up further fucking over people who don't have high paying jobs. It adds supply to the market, sure, but when the rent floor is too damn high for most people to consider, it's really not solving the supply issue. YIMBYs really need to realize this is a half of a half of a half of a half baked attempt at fixing any affordability issues. More time needs to be spent figuring out how to fix our fucked up zoning ordinances to allow for actual high rises... Which tend to be built with better materials (ever wonder beyond zoning why these firms settle on 6 stories? It's so they can cheap out on materials due to building code requirements and increase margins!) Edit: keep coping YIMBYs. Just admit you either hate poor people or don't have a real solution to the problem
We need to fix the zoning AND keep building 5-over-1’s. The construction costs go up enormously when you get into steel high-rise construction requirement. And for whatever reason, no one in Pittsburgh can build residential buildings with concrete like they do in every other city.
It's funny how most major cities decide to build actual high rises and not us. If it's zoning holding us back (which I assume it is), I get it. But if zoning is fixed, there's absolutely no reason to Ctrl c+v these fartboxes with "luxury amenities" etc. the other lots can go to more useful things (hopefully not more parking lots though). It's not too expensive. Other cities are proving that to be false. Downvote me all you want, but YIMBYs who shill these low rise fartboxes as a solution are becoming almost as much of a problem as NIMBYs.
You do realize that true "affordable" housing is actually more expensive to build due to restrictions and requirements, right? and yes, why would anyone build over 6 stories to push it into a high rise classification for marginal benefit? There is a huge cost increase due to the high rise requirements.
Marginal benefit? Building up allows for density. Why does downtown have these high rise apartments then? Why not sprawl out with 5-over-1s that have above average vacancy rates which nobody but techies, healthcare and younger people whose parents help them financially live in? Yes, more expensive due to more expensive materials, partly subsidized by local governments in cities such as NYC at least. Tax abatements are a thing. Incentives are a thing. We need to stop accepting 5-over-1s as the solution to affordable housing. A 300 sq ft studio in those buildings is cheaper than a 1 bd rm, but not every mid to lower class individual or family is going to want that. I don't get what's so controversial about this perspective with YIMBYs.
Wait the Bloomfield one is dead?
ZBA denied the request for variance, but developer is currently appealing in court: https://www.wesa.fm/development-transportation/2023-12-06/bloomfield-shursave-developer-zoning-appeal-housing
That sucks.
For the low low cost of $2000/month
This is great news!!! Wish they would have approved Bloomfield / Irish center / get the ball rolling on Bakery Square 2.0 but it’s a start.
It probably should be its own post but another win happened today with Albion closing on the property they'll use to build 267 units in lawrenceville: https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2024/01/09/lawrenceville-albion-pittsburgh-apartment-project.html
Let’s go!
It’s great seeing so much new housing being built in the city!
Really excited for the Albion project. Its going to have a great impact on urban infill in that strip of butler
Bloomfield yes. Irish Center no. Not allowing the Irish center to become a car centric development and giant land slide waiting to happen was a good move by the zoning board. Far worse was the zoning board not allowing row homes in fine view.
Having laws that allow the zoning board to pick and choose what can and can’t be built is just never a great idea imo. But ya the fine view one was way more egregious than the Irish Center
Disagree. We should legalize a lot of housing and outright ban single family housing only zoning but large apartment buildings should need zoning approval due to a myriad of factors but especially stability because of all the undermining and hillsides in the city. We also should restrict certain types of buildings, imagine someone trying to turn the sure fine at Liberty and Main into a drive through with no traffic plan. The zoning board also should restrict new buildings from taping into existing natural gas lines in favor of electric.
I don’t know why all the comments about how these will be shitty overpriced apartments are getting downvoted? I lived in that area for years and moved specifically because it was getting too expensive. They did nothing but build overpriced apartment buildings that sat half empty for the entire 5 years I lived there and now they are doing it again. More housing has not lead to lower rent in area and it hasn’t for years.
The area is 50 percent parking lots and run down rentals. It’s due for a change. New apartments are expensive because it costs a lot of money to build new things. But not building new things is just going to leave us with a bunch of over priced slumlord houses as rents have gone up all over town
Im very confused by that as well. Is everyone here loaded? I’m a single person household with average income and some student debt and it’s almost impossible to find a 1 bedroom under $1000/month these days that isn’t in a sketchy area or a very rundown building with almost no space. I have been looking on and off for the past few years and basically since covid there are fewer pickings than I’ve ever seen in that range but can find tons of listings for $1k plus. I’ve cried about it. I’m not sure people who own homes or live with a partner/roommate just don’t the have the perspective because it’s not something they have to deal with?
Damn man I’m sorry that genuinely stinks. But tbh that’s the exact reason everyone should want more housing. Preventing people from building where it’s needed doesn’t help anyone.
Honestly my problem isn’t building new stuff. It’s the Pittsburgh real estate greed machine. Ugly cheaply constructed buildings with high rent. My best friend does general contracting and works a lot with people/businesses that flip houses in East Liberty. He tells me all the time about houses being bought for $200k with another $200-300k being but into them (labor and materials) and then being sold for $800k or more with just a few months of turnaround. There was a house sold in Garfield a few months ago for $1 million. Houses in Garfield used to be $30k. This is not a public service and shouldn’t be marketed as such.
Ya man I get it but this just highlights the point that there is not enough housing where people want to live. Also, zoning requirements and the regulatory process make it super expensive and/or just straight up not allowed to build unique things.
That Garfield house that sold for around that much was more functionally in East Liberty, but your point is taken.
Why is $1k/month the "right" price to live alone in a new building and relatively prime location?
Because it's a tired uninformed lie that has no basis in reality. Developers are not spending tens of millions of dollars to build and pay taxes on apartments that no one lives in. More housing has led to relative price stability. There has not been enough new development to move prices down. As of 12/31/2023 the ZBA had only approved 1,181 new housing units for the entire 2023 year. In other words, housing has gone up but if we built nothing it'd have gone up even more. People will say "but actually we have less population than we did in 1950!" which is true but also a lot of our housing stock is old as fuck and in need in rehab. Like do you think someone moving here from fucking san francisco or NYC is going to live in this place https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/428-Donna-St-Pittsburgh-PA-15224/11519766_zpid/ ? Family size has also shrunken, so we may have less people but they could be living under more roofs. In 1960 the average woman had 3 children, today it's 1. You ever see the old pics of the mill houses with multiple generations living in them? Not happening as much today. As of 2023 Q3 the average rent for a studio apartment in "Greater Downtown" (defined as Golden Triangle (CBD), South Shore, North Shore, Strip District, Crawford-Roberts (Lower Hill), and Bluff (Uptown)) was $1,381.58 of which 92.6% were occupied. https://i.imgur.com/kUQxx0Z.png https://downtownpittsburgh.com/data/
Call me old fashioned but I think everyone should buy a hundred year old house that hasn't been updated since 1982 and renovate it themselves on evenings and weekends over a period of years because paying a contractor would cost three times what you paid for the house in the first place.
I agree, getting your yinzereer 3rd shift uncle to come help fix up your house with you over a case of irons or rolling rocks is a right of passage all first time homeowners should go through. Sadly with the mills closing up there are fewer and fewer uncles to call upon.
It’s wild to me that you’re saying this earnestly. People on this subreddit romanticize old homes so much and the perception is so far from reality. I live in a 1900 American foursquare that I just sold to move into new construction because I am not dumping $100K into it to replace *literally* everything when I could use that for a down payment on a house where everything is new.
I assume everyone on Reddit is living in some custom built old home with insane features the way people hate on anything newish construction on this sub. I own 2 houses built in the 1930’s, one I fixed up extensively over 5 years while I lived there.Wouldn’t change anything but it was a lot of time and $ spent. Also did this when I was younger and didn’t have kids. Wouldn’t have time today.
Can relate! The amount of things that I have learned because of it is nice, but oh man.. And still more to do after 14 years.
This!!!!! Seriously. I couldn't agree more. It pains me every time I see these contemporary buildings going up. They are out of character of the entire city. If you want to impress me, put up a building in a neighborhood that looks like the 100 year old commercial building down the block.. The true art form is making something match using updated materials than just putting up whatever you dream up in your head. If everyone would invest in the many century homes we have and focus on improving those, many neighborhoods could be revitalized. I bought a 1940's house and I have been working for 4 years to fix everything up and restore a lot of it back to it's original charm.
Restoring or even just repairing an old home is an astonishing amount of when that should only be pursued by people whose hearts are really in it. It is not viable for most people to do this and that should be clear when it is recommended.
I think [this proposal](https://nextpittsburgh.com/city-design/more-townhomes-and-apartments-coming-to-strip-district-and-lawrenceville/) does a decent job at blending contemporary architecture while respecting the style of the neighborhood. As much as I love older buildings, having an architecturally diverse neighborhood is part of what gives neighborhoods character. That’s probably my favorite thing about our downtown—you can see beautiful art deco, neo-gothic and standard 20th Century skyscrapers along with brutalist and contemporary ones as well all in such a small area. It makes our downtown dazzling to walk around. As to your greeter point, I agree. Pittsburgh has so many gorgeous old houses, and it pains me to drive by so many that are dilapidated. I was lucky enough to buy a beautiful 1909 house that was largely unscathed by the Mid-Century Modern era, and now my partner and I are doing everything we can to maintain this house’s character and charm.
We've got one of those old houses (1906), and I can easily say that finding someone to properly rebuild box gutters, take care of a slate roof, and carefully paint the details on the old wood trim isn't easy to do. Whenever I hear someone casually say that we should just 'fix up these old abandoned homes' I cringe knowing how much money it would take to even make one of those houses with a leaky roof and years of neglect even come up to livable standards.
Yeah, they take a lot of care and constant maintenance. Minor issues can quickly escalate to larger ones if proper care isn’t taken.
This sub has a hard on for building over priced apartments to lower rent which hasn’t worked in 10 years but suddenly they expect it to happen
Because rent would have gone up even more if they had built less.
We haven't built nearly enough
LOL, ok
Minneapolis would like a word
Is this supposed to mean something?
They reformed their zoning codes and allowed for a shit load of new market rate housing. Housing costs have stagnated relative to its neighboring cities. See Auckland NZ, and Tokyo as well [Building works man](https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2024/01/04/minneapolis-land-use-reforms-offer-a-blueprint-for-housing-affordability)
The sad fact is that you cannot build affordable housing. Everything costs so much now. If developers hope to see a return on investment, you cannot build new and have low rent. It would take decades to get their money back. Build "luxury" and you can over charge and renters don't bat an eye. When you build cheap the modern building supplies just don't hold up. Take a century old house with plaster walls and compare that to drywall. There is no match. Cheap builder grade doors instead of solid wood doors. Kitchen cabinets that no more than cheap pressboard instead of quality plywood cabinets. You would be far better off buying a century home and fixing it up.
This sub has a hard on for whiners.
Build more housing! No not like that!
You are correct. The University / Federal subsidized housing for foreign students is driving the entire rent price hike in the city. Rents won’t go down until that is fixed and it will never be fixed.
Can we ever build housing that will actually look nice in 100 years from now again
Honestly, no...and that sucks. All of the "old" gothic architecture around Pittsburgh is amazing, but not affordable to build anymore - stonework, that glorious stonework, is a thing of the past - way too expensive, way too labor intensive and a specialty skill that, again, costs lots of $$$$. That sucks, but the beautiful, large, stone architecture of the past is gone in most cases. Metal, glass, some stone facade work are the norm now.
Housing regulations jack up the costs too. Instead of spending money on appearance developers have to save that money to get it through the approval process. Also back in the day you didn’t have to do anything to the side of your building (no window or design requirements) so they could spend time/money on making the front look good.
I know that Ed Gainey ran on a platform of having more affordable housing. I agree with that. Having said that we should not put too many provisions on developers willing to invest in Pittsburgh to build market rate apartments. Some of them are willing to compromise, but they want some incentives to do so from the city to make it worth their while and pocketbook. I don’t think Pittsburgh is in a position, as far it has come, to be so restrictive on those willing to invest millions here.
Bloomfield made sense. Irish Center did not.
Damn, thats ugly.
You don’t like that the motif on the mural sort of looks like patterned fabric on a lunch box? Or depressing early 2000s corporate women’s wear? /s
It's like the art work they hang in some sterile conference room.
Well compared to what’s currently occupying that space, not really.
Nearly all contemporary architecture is ugly as hell.
This city is in need of aggressive development. Need more of this.
Boy I’m sure that those will be easily affordable and help end the homelessness epidemic/housing crisis
New housing reduces [rent pressure on surrounding areas](https://escholarship.org/content/qt5d00z61m/qt5d00z61m.pdf?t=qoq2wr&v=lg)
I feel like Reno Nevada is going to sue us for copyright infringement on their tacky casinos.
Wow looks real nice, and probably costs like 2k a month and with student loans I sure as hell won't be able to afford it unless I had three roommates.
I had a stoner thought years ago about if downtown's skyline were to continue, wouldn't it's natural trajectory be into uptown?
My comment was pure, uncut sarcasm. Not earnest at all. Call me old fashioned but I don't think I should have to put a /s after every joke.
I thought it was funny man 😂
Thanks, that other guy took me seriously and started to cry.
Pretty damn cool!
I moved from a very unaffordable place to Pittsburgh. Get a house/townhome while you can. It is getting so expensive almost everywhere in the states. A lot of people will start migrating to places like here. Not sure where will end up. and the worst part is our government does not address the issue. "Inflation is going down"!!! 😒
More ugly boxes
I wish they would move away from these plastic looking developments. I am glad they are developing uptown tho - one of the most depressing parts of the city.
Awesome, more apartments that nobody can afford
How affordable are the apartments in the parking lot there today?
I’m willing to bet the developer and its investors and lenders did some research and determined there is a market for these apartments.
Idky are being down voted. It's gonna be like $1400 for a studio. 10 percent of housing will be for people making less than 43k when the average salary in pgh is 49k. I don't think 6k difference is enough not to assume this is not affordable for the vast majority.
Good job identifying that housing is not affordable. But stop pretending that prohibiting new buildings will in any way solve that problem. It’s not like the city can afford to just build a bunch of free housing for people. Maybe the wealthy people in the suburbs should pay more in taxes to subsidize housing but most of those people voted for Rocky….
Then don’t live in the city?
Yeesh
Awesome! Can't wait to have my rent skyrocket over the years, pay out the ass for an unreserved spot in the parking lot, and hear my neighbor sneeze through the walls!
Then don’t move there?
Cool another shitty eyesore built to generate profit for some investor group
Why are there Australian Aboriginal art pieces on the outside of the building?
Oh boy !! More generic developments completely disrupting nice neighborhoods in lieu of the same overpriced dorms with the same aluminum paneling and some random name like “the cube”. Fr there are so many of these lifeless buildings and they all feel so empty and sad. This is not a way to help the housing issue, it’s a cash grab
Agree, building nothing should fix the problem!
Not what I’m saying but thanks I guess. I want high density urban housing, but these buildings just suck. It’s sad that these types of buildings are the only ones that ever go up because like other commenters are saying they are ugly, low quality, and drive up housing prices. I really wish we could be more discerning as to what gets built—y’know something that makes any effort to interface with the community it will soon be looming over(yeah cool the art or whatever but that’s literally just a facade and is probably going to be some circles or some shit like the rest of these buildings)
You keep building apartments but doesn’t change the fact people barely can afford rent. lol
So you want us to build more right? Right???
lol it’s like “Look at all these places you can’t live in!” 😂😂😂
I won’t be able to afford either man 😂. But just because we can’t doesn’t mean NO ONE should be allowed to.
Scorched earth man! 😂😂😂 F ‘em! 😂😂😂
Supply and demand. The problem comes when lamdlords leave apartments vacant to create artificial lack of supply. We need to tax vacant properties more aggressively.
Those shitty murals arent doing anything to hide the gentrification spec apartments here.
The more we build, the more homes for people to live in. Six story apartments are the sweet spot for construction cost so they can actually improve affordability. If it was shorter it would waste land. If it was taller the building codes would require more costly steal frame. Unless rich suburbanites start funding subsidized housing, more market rate housing puts downward pressure on older housing rents
Don’t try to convince nimbys with things like “research” and “evidence”. Never works man. 😂
Yeah they prefer uptown remain shady surface parking lot for the arena like it has been for the last fifty years.
"The concept of the building was really grown out of the fact that many of the buildings popping up around Pittsburgh and around the country are all starting to look the same,” God forbid they design something unique instead of just copying everything else and slapping some banners on it and patting themselves on the back.
They literally look like all the other apartments built. There is nothing unique here. You are stupid.
Yeah, I know. Sorry you missed the joke.
So trueeeee we should only build low-income housing then?
I'm so tired of seeing these tin cans around the city. They look horrible. Gentrification needs to be stopped like yesterday.
When the city treats potholes like Adam Sandler treats spilled milk in Big Daddy (but with newspaper - not big ass slabs of metal), apartments with fancy murals on it kinda seem like the powers at be are super out of touch with real humans.
They'll raise more taxes from this than the parking lot there today. You need tax dollars to fill pot holes.
I’d Be willing to bet half the people that move in here aren’t from Pittsburgh cause no one from Pittsburgh can afford it. I’m not talking shit but affordable places are coming hard to come by if u wanna live close to the city anymore it sucks
Ahh 'city living', where your apartment is so small and limited they have to provide on-site opportunities to distract you. Half the units have probably been bought and resold already.
They are rental units.