Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Frank Valenta looks at the neglected lot along Grandview Avenue, Mount Washington. Click photo for larger image.

After years of opposition to Craig Cozza's two proposed condominium developments, some Mount Washington residents have reached the point of just wanting him to do something.

They say he has tied up two huge pieces of prime real estate on Grandview Avenue for years and turned them into eyesores. The parcels are at 341 Grandview, at Bertha Street, and in the 1400 block, between Sweetbriar and Augusta streets.

The antagonism that several dozen Mount Washington residents have harbored for Mr. Cozza over the years has become something of an epic as neighborhood fights go. Mr. Cozza may be their poster boy, but he said the people who are complaining about his inaction are the reason for it, having challenged him in court and in the hearing rooms of the city.

"We had hoped [the condos] would have been built already," he said Friday, "but a small group of people don't want these to happen."

Of the property at 341 Grandview, where a sign announces "VICI on Grandview," an "exclusive 14-unit luxury condominium project," he said, "We just started moving dirt and will continue doing site work. It should start going up this year."

The update amuses many neighbors who have listened to such promises for years.

"No one believes him anymore," said Joyce Renne. "He does just enough to keep a project going, and it's not really a project. He moves dirt around."

"It's certainly not our intent" to drag it out, Mr. Cozza said. Investments on both projects amount to $44 million, he said. "Obviously, we didn't buy these just to sit on them."

Mr. Cozza told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 1999 that he planned to build a high-rise with underground parking on the site of three properties in the 1400 block. The 37-condo, 10-story complex would be just west of Trimont, a 25-story apartment building. He hoped to break ground that year and begin selling units in 2000.

In February 2002, he said he was ready to break ground in a month.

Today, the steel beams in a retaining wall are rusted. The wall is the height of a two-story parking garage. Adjacent to the wall is a house that neighbors say is uninhabitable because of the dig. The owners could not be reached.

Mr. Cozza said he had intended to buy the house but that the owners, David and Annette Hostoffer, "bought it out from under me" in 1999 and since have sued him. He said he thinks it was a strategy to stop him.

With the proposed name Bella Vista, Italian for "beautiful view," the open-air pit inspires Frank Valenta's sarcasm.

"This is a great view, isn't it?" said Mr. Valenta, a longtime antagonist and vice president of Mount Washington Community Development Corp., sweeping his arm over the pit. "This is prime real estate. How could the neighborhood have let this happen?"

He said the system is failing neighborhoods by not setting time limits.

"The guy has to be held accountable," he said.

Residents did protest long and loud over the years, arguing that a townhouse-height development would better suit the scale of the neighborhood.

In June 2004, more than 50 residents crowded a city planning commission hearing, most to support changing the height limit for new buildings on Grandview between Shiloh Street and Bigham Street from 100 to 40 feet, in part to stymie Mr. Cozza's efforts at 341 Grandview.

Later that month, the planning commission and Zoning Board of Adjustment granted the special exceptions Mr. Cozza needed for the 14-condo project to be 73 feet high as he had proposed.

Residents appealed to Common Pleas Court.

Mr. Cozza also was sued by the owner of half a duplex near the project at 341 Grandview after he bought the other half and began making plans to raze it. He eventually bought the plaintiff out and has recently bought another house nearby and had it demolished, he said.

It has been more than two years since Judge Joseph James affirmed the city's decision that the complex at 341 Grandview could exceed 40 feet. Mr. Cozza told the Post-Gazette then that he expected to break ground that summer, 2005.

The lawsuit at 1400 Grandview is tying his hands on the Bella Vista project, he said, but the way is clear on the other.

Asked why it has gone nowhere in two years, he said, "We've been doing other projects" during the challenges on Grandview. "It's slow ... slower than we'd like."

Paul Tellers, board president of Mount Washington Community Development Corp., said he initially wanted "to give the guy a break, because financing can take time." But no longer, he said.

"Vici in Italian means 'I conquer,' which is kind of interesting," he said. "We're wondering what legal recourse we have" to force a deadline, "but we're not coming up with much. We're stuck in a mode of giving him time whether we like it or not."