Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette photo / Strada LLC illustration Above is Market Square as seen today and below is an artist's rendering of a redeveloped Market Square, looking southwest toward Forbes and Fourth avenues. Click photo for larger image.
Click photo for larger image.

A developer showed Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O'Connor a $269 million vision for Downtown's shopping district yesterday, and asked for exclusive rights to city-controlled properties there.

In doing so, Washington County developer Millcraft Industries Inc. and its partners significantly upped the ante in the competition for Downtown real estate, saying they hope for a deal with the city by May 20.

Mr. O'Connor called their plan "very impressive. ... It's a pretty good plan, and they've brought a good team together."

That team includes Ira M. Morgan, a Squirrel Hill developer who loaned $120,000 to Mr. O'Connor's losing bids for the mayor's office and served as his campaign treasurer, and two commercial real estate brokers.

Millcraft is already working on the $52 million revamp of the former Downtown Lazarus, now Piatt Place, which is to include 180,000 square feet of office space, 50,000 square feet of stores including a food market, 25 condos and 22 rooftop townhouses. A model condo is to open next month.

Millcraft wants to add two more Downtown projects. Market Place Square would be a historically sensitive rehabilitation of the G.C. Murphy's building at Forbes Avenue and Market Square, turning it into apartments. Forbes Village would be a largely residential reworking of the block between Forbes and Fourth avenues, flanking Market Square.

In all, they would add 45,000 square feet of offices, 200,000 square feet of stores, 805 homes and $217 million in costs, above and beyond the Piatt Place project.

Lucas Piatt, Millcraft vice president of real estate, said the condominiums would "mostly" sell for $100,000 to $150,000, which is less expensive than most of the housing now under development Downtown. "We think it's time to open the market up for more affordable housing Downtown," he said.

Given the city's OK, Millcraft could start building apartments "right away," he said.

Millcraft isn't asking the city for a subsidy, nor for free property, but it does want exclusive options on 19 properties owned by the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority, he said. Given that, its marketers would take their plan to the International Council of Shopping Centers convention, which starts May 21 in Las Vegas.

"For us to be able to take these properties and market them to the retail community, in order to get the big names, we need control," Mr. Piatt said.

Brokers CB Richard Ellis and Langholz Wilson Ellis would market the properties.

"We think people view Pittsburgh as an opportunity," said Herky Pollock, executive vice president of CB Richard Ellis.

"From here, we have to sit down with the [Pittsburgh] Downtown Partnership, the Cultural Trust, the URA," said Mr. O'Connor. "We will probably evaluate [Millcraft's] and one or two other options."

He said he'll consider a potentially competing plan by developer Ralph Falbo, and is open to ideas from Washington, D.C.-based Madison Marquette, which had floated a $50 million to $60 million Downtown effort. He said he hasn't heard from Madison Marquette recently.

Mr. Falbo said it would "take powers stronger than us to determine whether [his plans and Millcraft's] can be blended or done separately" and added that there's "plenty of action for everyone in Pittsburgh."

Madison Marquette has a policy of not commenting until a contract is signed.

Mr. Piatt said he was intrigued by a proposal made yesterday by City Councilman William Peduto to waive city property taxes on Downtown housing for 10 years, and on offices and hotels there for five years.

"For these properties to be ultimately extremely successful, the city has to help out in that way," Mr. Piatt said, adding that his plan doesn't count on a tax abatement.

Though other ambitious Downtown plans of the past decade have faltered, this can succeed, he said.

"The trend is Downtown, across the nation," he said. The Cultural District, South Side and office districts are doing well.

"There's one little area that just needs some TLC, and that's the Fifth and Forbes corridor."