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Norma Cusin sits outside of the House Hill, charging her phone on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018, in Crawford-Roberts.
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New owner of Hill House properties wants to 'honor legacy' in the Hill District

Andrew Stein/Post-Gazette

New owner of Hill House properties wants to 'honor legacy' in the Hill District

The new owner of four build­ings in the Hill Dis­trict that have his­tor­i­cally housed med­i­cal clin­ics, day care, ed­u­ca­tion re­sources and other ser­vices said he’s com­mit­ted to “hon­or­ing that leg­acy” as he ren­o­vates the struc­tures and seeks new ten­ants.

Emeka On­wug­benu, prin­ci­pal of E Prop­er­ties and Devel­op­ment, on Thurs­day pre­viewed his plans for four prop­er­ties for­merly owned by the non­profit Hill House As­so­ci­a­tion dur­ing a com­mu­nity meet­ing at the Jeron X. Gray­son Com­mu­nity Center in the Hill Dis­trict.

Law­renceville-based E Prop­er­ties is the ma­jor­ity owner in a part­ner­ship that ac­quired the prop­er­ties, in­clud­ing Hill House’s main head­quar­ters on Cen­tre Avenue, from the cash-strapped Hill House in July.

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The mi­nor­ity part­ner, the Hill Com­mu­nity Devel­op­ment Corp., holds a 19.5% stake.

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Hill House a year ago dis­closed that it was sad­dled with debt from real es­tate de­vel­op­ments and needed to sell some as­sets to stay afloat.

Since then, the non­profit has put its other hold­ings on the mar­ket and an­nounced it is in the pro­cess of dis­solv­ing.

E Prop­er­ties and the Hill CDC paid about $5 mil­lion for four build­ings: Hill House’s main head­quar­ters site; One Hope Square, an of­fice-re­tail cen­ter, and a build­ing leased by Fam­ily Dol­lar, both on Cen­tre Avenue; and the Blakey Pro­gram Center on Wylie Avenue.

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Be­fore the trans­ac­tion closed in July, Al­le­gheny County Com­mon Pleas Judge Mi­chael McCarthy or­dered Hill House to use the pro­ceeds to pay down debt.

Mr. On­wug­benu’s de­vel­op­ment firm was founded in 2009 and owns and man­ages 100-plus rental units in the city.

While pre­par­ing to bid on the Hill House build­ings, Mr. On­wug­benu said he read Hill House’s 50-year his­tory and de­ter­mined, “This trans­ac­tion does not make sense if there is no com­mu­nity in­volve­ment.”

That’s when he ap­proached the non­profit Hill CDC to be­come a part­ner.

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It’s crit­i­cal to the part­ner­ship to have a day care cen­ter, coun­sel­ing ser­vices, hous­ing as­sis­tance and other so­cial ser­vices as ten­ants in the prop­er­ties, said Marimba Mil­liones, pres­i­dent and chief ex­ec­u­tive of the Hill CDC, “be­cause we are not a com­mu­nity that is void of so­cial ills.”

The ac­qui­si­tion from Hill House spec­i­fies that the non­profit can re­main for two years in its main build­ing, rent-free, said Mr. On­wug­benu.

Plans for that prop­erty in­clude ren­o­vat­ing the ex­te­rior to be­come a more open, wel­com­ing space that fea­tures light­ing and seat­ing on the Cen­tre Avenue plaza.

All four of the struc­tures need roof re­pairs and up­dated util­i­ties, Mr. On­wug­benu said.

Hill House’s main build­ing lost five ten­ants, in­clud­ing a day care cen­ter, af­ter a pipe burst in Jan­u­ary and forced the clo­sure of the prop­erty for five months.

Mr. On­wug­benu said he has al­ready re­cruited a new day care pro­vider, Learn­ing Loft, which is sched­uled to open in Jan­u­ary, and Fam­ily Re­sources, a non­profit that pro­vides coun­sel­ing and in­ter­ven­tion for child abuse.

He also plans a com­mu­nity meet­ing room and con­fer­ence hall in that build­ing.

Both he and Ms. Mil­liones said they hope to en­gage the com­mu­nity in com­ing up with a new name for the main Hill House build­ing.

“But I know peo­ple in the Hill will al­ways call that build­ing Hill House,” said Ms. Mil­liones.

Dur­ing the meet­ing at­tended by about 70, au­di­ence mem­bers ques­tioned how Hill House used $500,000 it re­ceived ear­lier this year from the Greater Hill Dis­trict Devel­op­ment Growth Fund.

Emma Lu­cas Darby, Hill House’s board chair, said the money was a grant from the fund to be used for op­er­a­tions and ser­vices and that if the sale price for its build­ings had ex­ceeded $5 mil­lion, the money would be paid back.

Many au­di­ence mem­bers, in­clud­ing the Rev. Glenn Gray­son of Wes­ley Center AME Zion Church, who serves on the fund’s board, said they be­lieved the money was loaned to Hill House.

Scott Lam­mie, vice chair of Hill House’s board, said an au­dit is be­ing pre­pared that will clar­ify the is­sue.

Ms. Lu­cas Darby said Hill House is ne­go­ti­at­ing to sell the Kauf­mann Center on Cen­tre Avenue and a se­nior ser­vices cen­ter on Bed­ford Avenue.

Hill House de­vel­oped and owned the Cen­tre Held­man Plaza, where a Shop ’n Save and a Crazy Mocha cof­fee­house both closed ear­lier this year. That prop­erty is cur­rently in re­ceiv­er­ship by Dol­lar Bank.

Joyce Gannon: jgannon@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1580.

First Published: September 6, 2019, 2:27 a.m.

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Norma Cusin sits outside of the House Hill, charging her phone on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018, in Crawford-Roberts.  (Andrew Stein/Post-Gazette)
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