The city Urban Redevelopment Authority board yesterday pushed ahead two projects seen as keys to revitalizing the Fifth and Forbes corridor Downtown and the Centre Avenue corridor in the Hill District.

Board members unanimously approved $18 million in tax increment financing for the proposed $170 million office tower to be built by PNC Financial Services Group on Fifth Avenue, Downtown.

In a separate vote, the board approved a series of actions to advance development of a new Carnegie Library branch in the Hill District, including the purchase of a vacant lot at 505 Kirkpatrick St. from the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church for $12,000.

URA board member Sala Udin, a former city councilman, said construction of the new library at Centre and Kirkpatrick, a key Hill District intersection, could "jump start" redevelopment of the entire corridor.

The URA board voted to convey the Kirkpatrick parcel and several others at the intersection to the library for $1. The library hopes to begin construction of the $3 million building by year's end or early in 2007, Director Dr. Barbara Mistick said.

She said the location is ideal because it is in the heart of the Hill, served by bus lines, near Central Baptist Church and on the site of one of late playwright August Wilson's favorite hangouts, the former Eddie's Restaurant.

Mr. Wilson, she said, "spent hours in the library [then on Wylie Avenue] when he was supposed to be in school, reading more books than he was required to read in school, developing his own curriculum."

The library hopes to honor the late Mr. Wilson in some way at the site.

The PNC tax increment financing, called TIF, would run 20 years and requires approval by the city, Allegheny County and Pittsburgh Public Schools.

The project is expected to generate $2.8 million in new taxes annually, $1.7 million of which would be used to repay the TIF. The taxing bodies would get $1.1 million. The properties slated for redevelopment now generate $194,000 in taxes.