Call it the Million Dollar Building.
Right now most people refer to it as the BET building, taking its name from the Braddock Enhancement Task Force, the now-defunct community development corporation which obtained the grants to renovate it.
Whatever you call it, the building, on which more than $800,000 has been spent, needs more than $450,000 in additional renovations.
The story of the building, actually three buildings at 849, 851 and 853 Braddock Ave., is the story of good intentions and poor administration of money.
The building used to belong to the Braddock Enhancement Task Force. In 1998, the Sanders Task Force opened a spigot of money to renovate the building in order to house the Sanders Workforce Development Program, which was a job training and readiness program run by the Braddock Enhancement Task Force.
The job training program was also funded by the Sanders Task Force, a group created by the 1994 settlement of a 1988 housing discrimination lawsuit. The money to fund both the Sanders Task Force and its projects came from federal community development block grants.
The Braddock Enhancement Task Force received $1 million to run the jobs program before the Sanders group cut off the money. The Sanders Task Force also provided the Braddock group with $836,973 to renovate the building, renovations that continued even after the job training program was shut down. The high cost of the renovations was, in part, due to much of the work having to be done twice because the first time it did not comply with building codes.
The renovations have been completed now for more than three years, but the building has been left unheated. The heat and cold of the seasons have blistered paint and ruined the plumbing, said John Dowling, the spokesman for the Allegheny County Department of Economic Development, which took possession of the building after the Braddock Enhancement Task Force disbanded.
Dowling said last year that his department estimated the building would need an additional $457,000 worth of work, including a new elevator to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
"A lot of the improvements that were made were negated because of weather concerns," Dowling said, adding that he won't know the full cost of the renovations until an architectural review has been completed.
Dowling said the county is planning to locate the Bureau of Community Services, which is part of the county's Department of Human Services, into the building once it is completed -- one more time.
Jon McKain, a spokesman for the county's department of human services, the services moved into the BET building will be those currently provided at the Braddock Training and Employment Center at 640 Braddock Ave.
The training and employment center has been located in that building for 34 years. It offers vocational training, computer literacy, adult literacy and preparation for the General Educational Development test.
McKain said those services will be relocated to the new building, and the department is talking with Community College of Allegheny County to provide more training programs there. The department is also considering adding a drop-in day care so that people who are using services in the building will be able to have on-site short-term child care.
"It will provide a much-needed human service in the heart of Braddock," Dowling said.
First Published: November 10, 2004, 5:00 a.m.