Pittsburgh City Council gave its initial nod yesterday to providing $18 million in aid for a new PNC Financial Services Group tower, to be built Downtown.

The tower could help revitalize Downtown's Fifth and Forbes avenues corridor in ways that heavily subsidized department stores did not, said Councilman Doug Shields.

"This particular project is geared toward putting bodies, feet on the street, on Fifth Avenue," he said, rather than luring shoppers.

The 25- to 30-story tower would include a luxury hotel of 150 or more rooms, 32 top-floor condominiums selling for around $600,000 each, and 360,000 square feet of office space.

It is expected to cost $170 million, aided by $30 million from the state and the proposed $18 million from the city, Allegheny County and Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Councilman William Peduto said he wants to know whether the building will be environmentally friendly, enhance the value of neighboring buildings, and affect vacancy rates in existing Downtown offices and hotels, among other things.

"These criteria that I'm setting up today are necessary because the city of Pittsburgh does not have any guidelines" for development subsidies, he said, adding that he'd submit legislation on guidelines this year.

The subsidy would cover demolition and asbestos remediation of existing buildings, excavation, sidewalk improvements, and some of the cost of construction of the parking garage and building, said David Matter, president and chief executive officer of Oxford Development Co., which is spearheading the project.

Mr. Matter said the project is "not a good investment opportunity for PNC," but is being pursued to improve Downtown.

The subsidy would come through tax-increment financing, or TIF. The city's Urban Redevelopment Authority would borrow $18 million for the project, then pay off the debt over 20 years using 60 percent of the projected $3 million in new city, county and school tax revenue from the tower.

City Council, County Council and the city school board must vote to allow the URA to draft a TIF plan, and later approve it.

Council held off voting on a $25 million TIF for proposed parking garages at the Pittsburgh Technology Center in South Oakland, pending a public hearing.