27-02-2025
Planning commission clears path for development in Uptown
The neighborhood that bridges the city's two biggest job centers could get another large housing development.
Why it matters: Uptown sits between Downtown and Oakland and has been waiting for housing and commercial redevelopment opportunities as investment pours into the neighborhood.
Driving the news: Cincinnati-based Stough Group on Tuesday presented a plan to demolish three vacant and condemned buildings that would clear the way for a 196-unit mixed-use development at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Van Braam Street.
The city's planning commission unanimously approved it.
What's inside: The seven-story building would include a fitness room, a lounge, a pool deck and a rooftop terrace and green roof meant to capture 50% of rain runoff.
10 units would rent at 30% or lower of the monthly income of people who make at or below $56,700 a year.
It also would include a 2,200-square-foot public plaza, 8,000 square feet of retail space, and 103 parking spaces.
A cost estimate was not provided in the planning commission agenda presentation.
What they're saying: Stough Group CEO Scott Stough said Tuesday his family has owned the church on the corner of Fifth and Marion Street since 1983, and he is excited to contribute new development to the neighborhood.
"We look forward to adding to the history that we already have in the Uptown/Bluff neighborhood," he said.
GBBN, the project's architect, is proposing building with mostly wood to comply with Uptown's eco innovation district, an initiative started in 2017 to prioritize sustainable building methods and environmental goals for the neighborhood, said GBBN principal Amanda Markovic.
State of play: Fifth Avenue is bustling with projects. A 34-unit affordable housing development broke ground last year just two blocks up the street, and a 254-unit mixed-use project located two blocks in the other direction cleared the planning commission in April.
Context: All the projects are along the Fifth-Forbes corridor, where the $291 million University Line bus rapid transit project is currently under construction and upgrading the neighborhood's infrastructure.
Stough said to the approval of some planning commissioners that his group has been in discussion with Pittsburgh Regional Transit to ensure the development helps the transit agency meet its transit-oriented development goals.
The future housing projects are also located just a stone's throw away from the $510 million expansion of UPMC Mercy, which was completed in 2023, and a new $55 million Duquesne University medical college, which opened last year.
What's next: GBBN principal Amanda Markovic said the final design for the redevelopment will be submitted for review within the next month.
