The cost of luxury condominium towers proposed in Mt. Lebanon keep growing, but the commissioners have granted another time extension for the developer to get his proposal for tax increment financing together.

Michael Zamagias Interests LTD plans a $42.7 million, 72-unit complex on Washington Road at Bower Hill Road but wants a $6.1 million TIF to do the project. The plan calls for more than $11 million to be diverted from school district and municipal tax coffers over 20 years to pay for $3.4 million in public improvements, including a right-turn lane from Bower Hill onto Washington and some public parking on the condo site.

The developer had until yesterday to get the TIF approved or the sales agreement for some of the land, owned by the Mt. Lebanon Parking Authority, would lapse. The commissioners voted 4-0 Monday to grant the extension to the sales agreement, with David Humphreys absent.

"My aye is somewhat reluctantly given," Commissioner Barbara Logan said, noting she wanted a drop-dead deadline for the project to proceed or stop. "I think it's a wonderful project, but I'm not willing to go on and on and on with it," she said.

The Zamagias' proposal has been before the town for two years; another developer had proposed condos, with that process dragging on for years before it was called off.

"I'm just concerned that we're on another treadmill with these guys again," Commissioner Keith Mulvihill said.

The new deadline for the TIF agreement is June 1, with closing on the land set for Nov. 1 and construction to begin shortly after, said Gene Hess, president of Zamagias.

The commissioners and Mt. Lebanon's school board would have to approve the TIF for the condos to be built. The school board will hear a presentation of the TIF plan March 12 and is scheduled to vote on it March 19. The commissioners will hold a public hearing on the application March 26 and vote on it and related legislation April 23.

After the meeting, Mr. Hess said his company would need to presell 30 percent to 50 percent of the units before it could go forward with the project.

Rob Spicher, a banker and member of Mt. Lebanon's economic development council, told commissioners they should ask Zamagias if it has received a term letter from a bank, which lays out provisions for financing, but the commissioners did not ask Mr. Hess for that documentation at the meeting.