The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has abandoned plans to create a clinical presence in the back yard of competitor Allegheny General Hospital.

UPMC's North Side push began in the late 1990s, when Allegheny General was struggling in the wake of the bankruptcy of its parent foundation. UPMC initially opened a medical office at the Harbor Gardens building in Manchester, then spent $6.22 million for two North Side properties partially owned by star neurosurgeon Dr. Joseph Maroon, who was being lured from Allegheny General by UPMC.

But in 2001, UPMC closed the Harbor Gardens medical offices even though it maintains a billing operation there. And it hasn't done much with the buildings it purchased from JCT Inc., the Ohio company in which Dr. Maroon had a stake.

One structure, an old church at 120 Parkhurst St. that had been converted to office space for Allegheny General's public relations department before the UPMC purchase, is now a church again.

After buying the old building in 1999 for $973,590, UPMC sold it to Community House Church during 2004 for just $410,000.

The second property, which once housed Allegheny General's back institute and is located at the corner of Spring Garden and Madison avenues, has sat empty for years. UPMC was unsuccessful in attempts to sell the building, and now thinks the structure it bought for more than $5.2 million can be used for administration.

"We have struggled internally as to how big a presence we should have on the North Side," said Eric Cartwright, UPMC's vice president of construction and corporate real estate.

"I don't see us having a strong clinical presence on the North Side."

Last year, a for-profit subsidiary of UPMC did buy an office building at 816 Middle St., a few blocks away from Allegheny General. But that was part of deal to end a management contract for an oncology practice once housed there, Mr. Cartwright said, adding that the building was for sale.

While the strategy of creating a clinical presence near Allegheny General didn't pan out, Mr. Cartwright insisted the overall North Side story hasn't been a bad one for UPMC. It expects to get back what it put into the Middle Street building, he said, and will use the back institute building for offices.

"The only one that didn't work out as well as we would have liked is the old church, but that's real estate -- some work, and some don't," he said.