Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
More luxury condos planned for Penn Ave.
November 22, 2006
By Jeremy Boren

Further proof of the city's luxury condominium boom is on its way to Penn Avenue.
Suburban Philadelphia-based developer Solara Ventures on Tuesday told the city Planning Commission of plans for a $5 million to $6 million renovation of the former Pittsburgh Dry Goods Co. building at 941 Penn Ave.

By November 2007, Solara President Jack Benoff said, he hopes people will be moving into 17 luxury condos that will be 1,500 to 3,000 square feet and sell for $335,000 to $700,000 each.

Most of the construction calls for adding four stories to the existing five-story shell to make a nine-story building. Retail space will be on the first floor.

The historic building was eight floors until a fire in the 1940s destroyed several stories, said Angelique Bamberg, the city's historic preservation planner.
Benoff's real estate manager, Kathy Wallace of Beynon & Co. Real Estate and Insurance, said the building will be upscale, but to put it in Manhattan terms, it's "more like Tribeca than Park Avenue."

The Historic Review Commission has approved the work, but proposed facade changes still need the Planning Commission's approval. Those changes include recessed balconies for each condo on either side of the building, Benoff said.

Separately, Urban Redevelopment Executive Director Jerry Dettore asked the commission to designate the site of the former Nabisco plant blighted so a private development plan there could be eligible for a tax-increment financing package.

The site is near the corner of Fifth and Penn avenues in East Liberty. If the commission approves the blight designation in two weeks, the URA will pursue a $13 million to $14 million TIF to build a 900- to 1,200-space parking garage and possibly make improvements to Penn Circle.

The garage would support Shadyside-based developer Walnut Capital Management Inc.'s plan to spend $105 million to $125 million to build a 120-room hotel and develop 167,000 square feet of retail space, 214,000 square feet of office space and 32 to 50 residential units on the Nabisco site. The industrial site has a seven-story tower and four-story annex that have been vacant for five years.

The financing package would allow the URA to divert up to 60 percent of property tax revenues from the developing site to pay off a $13 million to $14 million bond to be used to build the garage and infrastructure improvements.

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