While the first streets are now in place, don’t expect the much anticipated redevelopment of the former Civic Arena site to follow any time soon.
The Pittsburgh Penguins will buy more time to start the first office and residential developments planned for the 28-acre publicly owned site, meaning that neither will start before the end of the year.
Team officials are still trying to secure a tenant for the office development. In addition, they need more time to address environmental issues and close a financial gap before starting the first phase of the residential project, said Travis Williams, chief operating officer.
“Development is not easy. It takes time. It takes a lot of effort. Everybody’s been rolling up their sleeves around the table trying to make it happen,” he said.
Word of the extension came the same day that he, a host of federal, state and local politicians, and some Hill District residents celebrated the opening of Fullerton Street and a portion of Wylie Avenue through part of the former arena site.
Friday’s opening of the two streets is part of a broader effort to reconnect the Hill District with Downtown, a link severed a half a century ago when the Civic Arena was built.
The Penguins will pay the Pittsburgh-Allegheny County Sports & Exhibition Authority $75,000 to buy another six months of time for the office project.
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It will be the third extension that the hockey team has paid for since last October, when the Penguins were supposed to buy the first two-acre parcel for development under its team’s agreement with the SEA and the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority. The Penguins can take up to four six-month extensions without losing development rights to a parcel.
The team won the rights to develop the 28 acres in the 2007 deal to build the PPG Paints Arena, formerly the Consol Energy Center.
The extension for the initial phase of a proposed 1,200-unit residential development will be the Penguins’ first on that part of the project.
Mr. Williams said the team is talking with three to four potential tenants for the office project. It has been looking for another tenant since U.S. Steel last November backed out of a deal to build a new headquarters at the site.
The team had earlier expressed doubts about meeting this month’s deadline for the start of the 175-unit residential first phase. It has cited concerns about possible environmental contamination and a $5 million gap in the financing, which it has attributed to a requirement to earmark 20 percent of the housing as affordable.
The Penguins now expect to do a larger first phase on the residential than they originally planned, one that could cover as many as four acres of land rather than the two they are required to purchase.
If that happens and the team is able to land an office tenant, it could be in position to acquire six acres of land next year, Mr. Williams said. That would be in keeping with what’s required by the end of 2017 under its agreement with the SEA and the URA.
The Penguins can tap into $15 million in development credits awarded as part of the arena deal to buy extensions in six-month increments for up to two years, after which the team could lose development rights to the parcels in question.
Kevin Acklin, chief of staff to Mayor Bill Peduto, who has expressed frustration with the pace of the development, said the city has been having “ongoing and direct conversations with the Penguins, and we remain hopeful that we will come to a tentative agreement relating to the first phase of housing that meets or exceeds the commitment we collectively made to the Hill District community.”
Meanwhile, the portion of Wylie that opened Friday reconnects part of the 28-acre site to the rest of the Hill, a link that was destroyed when the Civic Arena was built in the early 1960s.
The project wiped out the lower Hill, displacing 413 businesses and more than 8,000 residents and destroying 1,300 buildings.
With the first phase that opened Friday, Wylie extends more than a third of the way through the site.
The plan is to eventually stretch it all the way to Washington Place and add Logan Street as well. The SEA has received a $19 million federal grant to build a park over Interstate 579 that will serve as a connection from the arena site to Downtown. The state has chipped in $12.5 million to help install the street grid.
Gov. Tom Wolf said Friday that the project “begins to right that wrong” that occurred decades ago when the lower Hill was destroyed to make way for the arena.
Among those attending the ceremony was Brenda Tate, a 67-year-old Hill resident who remembers walking down Wylie Avenue toward Downtown. She can’t wait to do it again one of these days.
“When it opens completely, I’m going to take that walk, as I used to when I was a girl,” she said.
Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
First Published: October 7, 2016, 5:47 p.m.
Updated: October 8, 2016, 4:07 a.m.
