For 30 years, the darkened shell of the Armstrong Cork factory has loomed over the Allegheny River, collecting debris, housing drifters and inviting dreamers to make it live again.

Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Graffiti covers the Armstrong Cork Building in the Strip District. The turn-of-the-century building has been empty since the 1970s. Development plans for the site call for 297 loft apartments, a 450-car parking garage and first-floor retail shops. Click photo for larger image.

But the plans have all faded due to lack of funds -- possibly until now.

The Erect Fund, backed by building trades union pensions, has committed enough money to bring financing on the project to $40 million. With that financing in place, Hammel said he is ready to break ground "almost immediately."

Plans call for 297 loft apartments, a 450-car parking garage and first-floor retail shops. The project is expected to be completed in 18 months.

Abandoned when Armstrong Cork closed the Pittsburgh factory, the complex has a long history of frustrating developers' plans for rehabilitation.

First there was Toronto-based York-Hannover Development Inc., which in the 1980s tried to transform the red-brick complex into apartments and restaurants. Failing to raise the needed $40 million, York-Hannover filed for bankruptcy in 1992.

Then came Preservation Investments Inc., of Boston. Unable to raise the required capital for an apartment complex, it abandoned the project in 1993.

Hammel bought the property at a 1996 court-appointed auction, paying $1 million. His first partner pulled out after failing to secure financing. He then turned to Chicago-based developer McCaffery Interests.

When Hammel made his purchase, the concept of converting older buildings into upscale housing was still new to Pittsburgh. Now such projects are blossoming in and around Downtown.

If Hammel and McCaffery can adhere to their new timetable, the completed project will no longer be a novelty but simply a new element in an ongoing transformation of the city's core.