Bakery Square project may get $4 million grant from redevelopment authority
| TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sam Spatter April 07, 2009 |
The developer turning a former Nabisco bakery into a mixed-use complex with office and retail space may get a grant of up to $4 million today from Pittsburgh's Urban Redevelopment Authority. Walnut Capital Partners of Shadyside is seeking money from a state redevelopment capital fund as it works to open Bakery Square in Larimer-East Liberty. Buildings at the former bakery plant are being converted for stores and offices as part of the $113.3 million project, and other retail, restaurant and fitness center space plus a 120-room hotel and parking garage are being built. The URA will review a request today to lend the developer of Piatt Place $2 million to complete the residential, office and restaurant building in an expanded former department store Downtown. Bakery Square is expected to create 750 new jobs and retain another 432. Tenants include an Urban Action fitness center, Anthropologie women's apparel store, West Elm furniture and lighting store and PaperMart, which is relocating from the former Ford Building in Shadyside. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center wants to convert that building to a research center. Millcraft Industries Inc. of Washington County is building Piatt Place. The developer wants to repay a 2006 promissory loan to the URA, which then would re-lend $2 million to CCG Investment Fund IX, LLC, a tax credit fund owned by US Bancorp CDC. The money would be invested in Commonwealth Cornerstone Group Ltd. IX, a community development entity that then would lend money to the Piatt Place development. A mortgage on the project would secure the loan. Most of the office and restaurant space at Piatt Place has been leased. State offices are to occupy 178,000 square feet there once the State Office Building on Liberty Avenue is sold, although that plan is being challenged by state Auditor General Jack Wagner. More than half of the 65 condominiums atop the building have been sold, and residents are moving in. At its meeting today, the URA board will consider: • Renovations to the Lambeth Apartments for senior citizens in Lawrenceville, for $20.5 million. Developers Affirmative Investments Inc. and Presbyterian SeniorCare Inc. want to cut the number of units from 194 into 102. The Penn Avenue complex, 48 percent occupied, would be renamed York Commons. • Establishing a $2 million Pittsburgh Entrepreneur Fund that the city would use to help finance emerging technology companies. This would be a revolving loan fund. • Providing $300,000 more to Governor's Hotel Co. LP toward the $21.4 million cost to build the Hotel Indigo off North Highland Avenue in East Liberty. The URA provided a $2.75 million loan and a $63,000 grant before for the 140-room hotel.
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