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Sunday, July 07, 2002

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Ryan Ward is a 25-year-old college graduate who grew up in Finleyville, Washington County, and then came north to attend Duquesne University. But instead of fleeing Pittsburgh after graduation, Ward -- get this -- decided to buy a house in the city.

He found just the spot in Fox Way Commons, a townhouse development on 17th Street on the South Side, where he's lived for more than a year. The unit was part of a development built by the South Side Local Development Company, a nonprofit neighborhood group founded in 1982.

And Ward doesn't even work in the city. A reverse commuter, he drives 40 minutes each morning to his job in Monessen in the Mon Valley.

What's the story with this guy?

"I learned about the South Side when I was at Duquesne," he said last week. "I liked that part of town. It's becoming a younger part of town. I hung out and enjoyed the nightlife. [After graduation], I wanted to stay around the city somewhere.

"With the future development going on in South Side, I thought this was a good time to buy and this would be a good place to buy [a house]. I like its proximity to the [riverfront] trail system because I go running just about every day. I like being near the Steelers' training complex. I also like the proximity to Bruschetta's and Fatheads" and other restaurants on East Carson Street.

All this is music to Carey Harris' ears. The executive director of the South Side development group is proud of the way the commercial section along Carson Street has bounced back over the past 20 years, but she knows that the South Side can't simply rely on suburbanites coming to nightclubs, restaurants and antiques shops and then going home.

She knows that residential growth is a major key to keeping the South Side vital, attractive and energetic.

That's why her group has worked hard over the past decade to develop 70 new homes in several projects, including Fox Way Commons, Edwards Court, New Birmingham and the newest one, Shelly Street homes, eight new rowhouses near 27th Street on the South Side Slopes.

"I have a great view of the Cathedral of Learning, and when I stand on the deck, I have a view of Downtown," said Maureen Rottschaefer, who bought one of the Shelly Street units. She's a native of Oakmont who moved back to this area last year after living in New York City for six years.

Rottschaefer, 28, who works at PPG Place as a Web programmer, wanted a 20-minute commute to work, as she had in Manhattan.

"South Side was as close to New York City living as I could get in Pittsburgh," she said. "And I like the proximity to the city."

Harris thinks South Side residential opportunities will get a major boost in August, when a groundbreaking ceremony is held on a project of 270 upscale rental units. The rental costs won't be for the faint of heart, probably starting at $1,200 or so per month.

"We think there is a demand for quality rental housing on the South Side," said Harris, who said the apartments will attract people who don't want to buy a home.

"Rental is a good way for people to come and get introduced to a neighborhood," she said.

The 270 units set to be built by Continental Communities of Columbus, Ohio, will be at East Carson and 25th streets, on the westernmost section of the sprawling former LTV steel mill site now known as South Side Works.

Continental is the same firm that has done the sprawling commercial/residential/entertainment project called The Waterfront, a few miles down the Mon in Homestead and Munhall.

"We are under way with the site work, mainly the underground demolition to prepare the site for foundation work," said Gus Cook, Continental Communities president.

That prep work will take another 30 to 60 days, with construction of foundations for the apartments set to begin by late summer, Cook said.

"We are on track to have units ready by sometime next spring," he said.

The rental units will be adjacent to a new retail/commercial area to be built on a new street between Carson and the Mon River. That work is to be done by Soffer Development Co., which has already built a new office building at the new Hot Metal Street and Carson on the old LTV steel site.

The new residential and retail portions of the site will join structures that have been built on the eastern portion of the South Side Works during the past five years, including the UPMC sports medicine complex, the Steelers' practice facility, the new FBI headquarters, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers building and other structures.