A developer is close to acquiring 5.6 acres of public land needed to advance a $236 million plan to transform an old industrial stretch of the Ohio riverfront on the North Side into a play land featuring a giant Ferris wheel, a marina, apartments, retail and a splash park.
Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority board members are expected to vote Thursday on whether to sell the property to Millcraft Investments for $1.5 million plus costs.
The land would be used for phase one of Millcraft’s ambitious Esplanade development, one that has been some four years in the making.
It’s a plan that’s built around a Navy Pier-like Ferris wheel with LED lighting and a pavilion that would serve as a hub for a restaurant, fresh food market and other experiential activities.
The year-round pavilion, which also would include a courtyard and winter garden, replaces plans for a $6 million manmade lagoon that Millcraft decided to ditch because of difficulties involving a railroad right-of-way and the financing associated with that.
Accompanying the Ferris wheel would be a 15,000-square-foot retail building that Millcraft in the past has envisioned as a possible site for a “Pittsburgh Firsts” museum that would highlight inventions and inventors native to the Steel City.
That would include, of course, George Ferris Jr.’s invention, which will be one of the development’s main attractions.
Beyond the amusement ride and the pavilion, Millcraft in the first phase is proposing a 300-unit apartment complex in which 20% of the units would be designated as affordable to households at 80% of the area median income or lower.
Other elements include a 550-space public parking garage and a marina that would feature houseboats, seasonal and transient slips, and public pier and public safety uses.
As part of the plan, a section of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail would be relocated and enhanced with public amenities, according to the URA, and the river bank would be stabilized and replanted with native species.
To compensate in part for the loss of the lagoon, Millcraft is planning to add a splash park that would be converted into an ice skating track in the winter.
Other improvements include a “park-like” amphitheater for small performances and local music and retail kiosks to be used as incubators or temporary operating spaces for local businesses.
"We are excited to be moving to the next steps of the Esplanade project,” Lucas Piatt, Millcraft owner and CEO, said in a statement.
“We are especially thankful for our partnership with our neighbors in the Manchester, Chateau and North Side communities as we work together to reconnect the neighborhoods and transform old industrial land into an active riverfront destination for everyone to enjoy. We are grateful to the city and URA for their support.”
A timetable to get going on the first phase has yet to be set.
“We’re excited to get started as soon as we can,” said Molly Onufer, Millcraft spokeswoman.
The land the developer is buying from the URA involves the former J. Allan Steel site on the riverfront in Chateau just west of the West End Bridge and the former Eles concrete facility.
In addition to the URA parcels it is seeking, Millcraft has secured several privately owned adjacent parcels, bringing the total footprint for the Esplanade development at full build out to 15 acres.
In future phases, Millcraft envisions a 40,000-square-foot aquarium; 300,000 square feet of medical, technical, and life science space; more apartments as well as condominiums; a possible hotel; and additional parking.
According to the URA, the future phases are dependent “on market conditions following the COVID-19 pandemic.”
For the past two years, Millcraft also has been working with North Side community groups to try to find ways to improve access to the area and to the riverfront.
In materials accompanying the URA agenda, the authority stated that possible upgrades could include the conversion of one-way Beaver Avenue into two ways and the enhancement of existing connections between Manchester and the riverfront.
Other possibilities involve potential work to extend a Port Authority light rail transit line to Pittsburgh International Airport and a study to determine if all or portions of elevated Route 65 could be lowered.
One source of funding for such improvements as well as those needed within the Esplanade development itself, the URA suggested, could be a Transit Revitalization Investment District, or TRID.
A TRID study, it stated, has already started, with a draft for public comment expected to be available before the end of the year.
Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262
First Published: December 14, 2021, 11:42 p.m.