A proposal to build hundreds of apartments in Pittsburgh’s Hill District could reinvigorate a long-undeveloped part of the neighborhood and provide college students with needed housing.
New York-based JK Equities and Manor Park Ventures has secured exclusive negotiation rights with the Urban Redevelopment Authority to buy 90 publicly owned parcels in the Hill District.
The developers are planning a four-phase housing development at the site, focused on and around Herron Avenue, where they could build multiple apartment buildings on land that has sat empty for years.
Council President R. Daniel Lavelle, who sits on the authority’s board, said he hopes the development could give students housing options while not pushing longtime Hill District residents from their neighborhood.
“There’s not enough housing in Oakland,” the councilman said. “So all of those students, all of that pressure is coming into that portion of the neighborhood, so we’re losing long-term occupants.”
Currently, he said, some buildings that were once single-family homes are being divvied up to house multiple students.
He hoped students would be able to move into the new apartments instead, leaving single-family homes for long-term residents.
The proposed development would begin with a 195-unit apartment building with commercial space on the first floor. The building would include 45 three-bedroom apartments, 20 two-bedrooms, and 30 one-bedrooms.
A second phase would include two six-story apartment towers, one with 60 apartments and the other with 80. They, too, would have commercial spaces on the ground floors.
The first two phases of the project are expected to cost about $170 million, according to information presented to the URA board earlier this month.
Ahead of a vote on the measure, Lavelle said he hoped future phases also would incorporate single-family homes. Details of the third and fourth phases have not yet been presented to the authority.
Roger Black, a partner at Manor Park Ventures, told the URA board the developers wanted to “provide what we believe to be much-needed housing in this area.”
“We think this is a pioneering opportunity to develop this part of town,” he said.