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Wednesday, October 23, 2002

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The sprawling, dilapidated Armstrong Cork complex in the Strip District is littered with the debris of failed development plans, but that isn't discouraging Jules Marling of Chicago and James Carr of Philadelphia.

	Online graphic: Armstrong Cork factory renovation

They successfully pitched a $45 million proposal to the city Planning Commission yesterday to renovate the three 100-year-old vacant brick buildings along the Allegheny River between 23rd and 24th streets.

Using almost all private funds, they plan to turn them into 291 luxury loft apartments and a 10,000-square-foot restaurant. On a vacant adjacent parcel, they plan to build a 450-car parking garage that will have retail shops along Smallman Street.

The commission approved the project, the fourth such housing rehabilitation proposal for the Armstrong Cork complex in the past 15 years. Three previous firms, one from Toronto, one from Boston and another from Portland, Maine, all tried but failed to resuscitate the old buildings.

Planning commission Chairman Tom Armstrong, who is not related to the company founder, wished the latest developers well.

"Is something really going to be built this time?" asked Armstrong, understandably skeptical. "The plan looks spectacular. We look forward to it being under construction."

Marling, a well-known condominium developer, did a 49-story luxury condo project called Chicago Place, which sits atop a Saks Fifth Avenue store on Michigan Avenue. He said he thinks construction will be under way at Armstrong Cork by the end of the year.

For the past 20 years the once-handsome buildings have been empty and the property marred by rusted metal, broken windows, graffiti and trash.

The smallest building in the complex, which sits in a courtyard between the two seven-story structures, will be renovated to house the lobby, plus a swimming pool and gymnasium for residents.

The seven-story buildings, called the Factory Building and the Warehouse Building,are connected by two above-ground enclosed "bridges," one of which may get a sign reading "Armstrong Lofts."

Besides converting the three buildings to loft apartments, the project includes putting a restaurant on the first floor of the Tower Building, a 10-story structure which overlooks the river at 24th Street.

On a vacant parcel between the complex and Smallman Street, developers plan to build the garage, with street-level retail stores. The garage would serve residents of the lofts and people coming to the restaurant.

Marling's development firm, Big River Development, includes Carr, an architect/developer, plus two Pittsburgh businessmen, Charles Hammel of Pitt Ohio Trucking and real estate executive Robert Beynon.

Hammel bought the deteriorating 440,000-square-foot industrial complex five years ago. His first redevelopment partner, Landmark America of Portland, Maine, worked on the project for three years before abandoning it in early 2001.

Marling said another person involved in this new Armstrong Cork project is Tim Leonard of New Orleans, who has experience in rehabbing historic buildings into housing.

Marling said his son, Terry Marling, a dancer with the Pittsburgh Ballet, brought him here from Chicago about a year ago to look at two old buildings with an eye toward rehabilitation: the Armstrong Cork complex and a brick building that stood near Station Square, the Lawrence Paint Co. building. The latter structure has since been razed.

Marling said that in the 1980s, when York-Hannover of Toronto tried to turn the three-building complex into housing, the market for loft apartments probably hadn't arrived in Pittsburgh yet. He said he thinks the market for lofts is here now. While rental prices haven't been set yet, they will likely be in the range of $800 to $2,000 a month.

Marling and Carr said the market for luxury loft apartments has proven so popular in Chicago and Philadelphia that virtually all the old, available buildings have been occupied and developers are now putting up new "concrete shells" that can be turned into lofts.

Marling said the plan by Landmark America of Portland failed because it didn't make proper use of the available space in the three buildings.

"The layout didn't work," he said. "It wasn't a cost-effective way to design the buildings."

Marling said he will use federal historic tax credits as a way to raise private capital for the project. Investors can receive credits on their federal taxes for investing in the housing rehab.

The three Armstrong Cork buildings were designed by noted turn-of-the-century architect Frederick Osterling in the Richardsonian-Romanesque style. They were built between 1901 and 1913 and are eligible to be included on the National Register of Historic Places, according to the planning commission.

Marling said that while most of the funding will be private, he may work with the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority to obtain state loans for environmental work needed at the old buildings, such as removing asbestos and lead-based paint.