An ambitious plan to convert an old industrial stretch of the Ohio riverfront into a wonderland featuring a giant Ferris wheel, a marina, retail outlets, apartments and a splash park has received a $10 million boost.
Developer Millcraft Investments has been awarded a $10 million state redevelopment assistance capital grant to help finance the proposed $600 million North Side development, which is still in the planning stages.
The grant was the largest awarded for a project in Allegheny County in the latest round of RACP funding.
Millcraft’s Esplanade project has been about four years in the making and already has undergone changes because of logistics and financing.
The centerpiece of the redevelopment involves a Chicago 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 pavilion, which would also include a courtyard and winter garden, is a substitute for a $6 million human-made lagoon Millcraft scrapped because of issues involving a railroad right-of-way and financing associated with it.
Millcraft is still moving forward with the Ferris wheel, whose footprint would include a retail building that could include a “Pittsburgh Firsts” museum highlighting inventions and inventors who hailed from the Steel City.
Other elements planned in phase one of the development include a 300-unit apartment complex with 20% of the units affordable to those at 80% of the area median income or lower; a 550-space public parking garage; and a marina for houseboats, seasonal and transient slips, and public pier and public safety uses.
Beyond the pavilion, Millcraft also is planning a splash park that would be converted into an ice skating track in the winter to compensate for the loss of the lagoon.
Molly Onufer, a Millcraft spokeswoman, said the overall project is still in design. The developer anticipates breaking ground in 2024, with the first phase to be finished in 2026. The development involves the former J. Allan Steel site in Chateau, just west of the West End Bridge and the former Eles concrete plant. Millcraft also has secured several adjacent private parcels for the work.
“Not only is this project important to connect the neighborhoods to the river and create an inclusive community for people to visit, live, work and play, it will also generate millions of dollars annually in taxes that can be used for additional community improvements,” Ms. Onufer said in a statement.
For future phases, Millcraft is planning a 40,000-square-foot aquarium; 300,000 square feet of medical, technical and life sciences space; more apartments as well as condos; a possible hotel; and more parking.
In December, the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, in selling the steel and concrete plant sites to Millcraft for the development for $1.5 million, stated that future phases could depend on market conditions following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Pennsylvania Economy League has estimated the 15-acre development will generate 7,100 construction jobs over a six-year, two-phase construction period and 4,500 jobs once it is finished and stabilized
It also estimates it will generate $880 million in annual spending.
Millcraft and city officials also have been looking at the possibility of creating a Transit Revitalization Investment District, or TRID, to help fund a host of access improvements, including the conversion of one-way Beaver Avenue into a two-way.
Meanwhile, the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority also received a $500,000 RACP grant to use in splitting the former Shop’n Save space in the Centre Heldman Plaza on Centre Avenue in the Hill District into two separate spaces.
Part of the space will be used by Salem's Market and Grill grocery, which is scheduled to open in August, once again giving residents access to fresh produce and meats.
The Hill has been without a full-service grocery since March 2019, when Shop ’n Save closed its doors after a six-year run.
Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
First Published: April 26, 2022, 10:00 a.m.
Updated: April 26, 2022, 4:00 p.m.
