Impakt Development Nears Completion on School Conversion
by Adriana Pop, Associate Editor The conversion of the historic Fifth Avenue School into a luxury apartment building is nearing completion. Located near the South Side, Downtown and Oakland, Pittsburgh’s newest loft project offers 65 large floor plans. The Pittsburgh Business Times reported that work began in 2010, and the first units would be turned [...]
by Adriana Pop, Associate Editor
The conversion of the historic Fifth Avenue School into a luxury apartment building is nearing completion.
Located near the South Side, Downtown and Oakland, Pittsburgh’s newest loft project offers 65 large floor plans.
The Pittsburgh Business Times reported that work began in 2010, and the first units would be turned over to tenants starting May 1. Construction is expected to be fully completed by the end of the summer.
Built in 1894, the 110,000-square-foot Gothic-style property closed as a school in 1977. In June 2009, partners Casey Steiner and Jonathan Hill of Impakt Development Inc. bought the building for $640,000, with plans to convert it into 5th Avenue School Lofts. The $10.5 million redevelopment project became financially viable through historic tax credits approved by the National Park Service.
In other news, the Regional Industrial Development Corp. (RIDC) of Southwestern Pennsylvania is seeking developers to design a new master plan to build offices, retail, light industrial and residential space on the former LTV Steel Hazelwood site on the Monongahela River.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the property is the last major piece of vacant land available for development in the city.
The Pittsburgh Business Times reports that RIDC manages the 178-acre property on behalf of its owner, Almono Partners, a collection of four local foundations – Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, Heinz Endowments, Richard King Mellon Foundation and McCune Foundation – who bought the former mill site in 2001 for $10 million.
The redevelopment plan now proposes 691,645 square feet of industrial space, more than 2.1 million of mixed-use space and 1,320 residential units. The site is located in close proximity to the universities and medical facilities in Oakland, Downtown, Squirrel Hill and the South Side. The preliminary cost is between $150,000 and $250,000 per acre, the newspaper reports.
Photo credits: 5thlofts.com