Nearly a million dollars in revenue generated by new developments in the Lower Hill District is set to go toward the construction and rehab of office and commercial space for new businesses, affordable apartments and artist studies in the neighborhood.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority on Thursday voted to approve $930,000 from the Greater Hill District Reinvestment Fund to go toward four different projects across the community.
“There was always the intent that the redevelopment of the Lower Hill District would help spur the economic and social development of the Middle and Upper Hill District,” said Daniel Lavelle, vice chair of the URA and City Council member for this district. “And so that’s what we’re able to do today with deploying these funds.
The grant funds go toward filling in funding gaps on construction of African Queens Apartments — a mixed-use apartment building that plans to include 12 units marked as affordable; the first phase of rehabbing a vacant building with Big Tom’s Barbershop on the first floor; the first phase of renovating a former lumber warehouse and converting it into Rhythm Square — a building with retail on the ground floor and a dozen subsidized artist studios on the second floor; and rehabbing a building on Wiley Avenue with office space and six affordable apartment units called the Herron and Wiley Project.
Money from the Greater Hill District Reinvestment Fund comes from a tax diversion for all new development in the Lower Hill District. The Lower Hill Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) was established in 2015, with the mandate that half of future property taxes of new developments would go into the Greater Hill District Reinvestment Fund to fund programs that support the neighborhood.
The first new development — First National Bank’s headquarters — seeded the fund with $7.1 million in 2021. Before today’s funding authorizations, the fund stood at $7.4 million. In addition to today’s projects, the URA has allocated $465,000 from the fund to a program to help local homeowners with repairs.
Elsewhere in the Lower Hill, Live Nation’s new music venue, Citizens Live! At the Wylie, is wrapping up construction and set to open this October. Revenue generated through real estate taxes on that new development will give the Hill’s reinvestment fund an additional boost.
Last October, the Pittsburgh Penguins gave up exclusive development rights to the Lower Hill District — the 28 acres near the site of the current PPG Paints Arena. They had held the redevelopment rights since 2007. At the upcoming URA meeting in April, the board will vote on a new set of processes for how to handle the property.
This includes looking for developers to redevelop part of the Lower Hill that’s now parking lots and turn it into housing that could also include some commercial space; giving Trek Development authorization to build Bedford Dwellings — a mixed use housing development on a section of the site; and making changes to the Lower Hill Development Fund — which funds public infrastructure in the Lower Hill. No changes will be made regarding the Greater Hill Reinvestment Fund. Residents can comment on the proposals online until April 7th.