The city may sell a 100-year-old building on Ross Street as part of a Ravenstahl administration plan to get more government properties onto tax rolls.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority board agreed at its meeting yesterday -- inside the very same John P. Robin Civic Building -- to seek proposals from real estate consultants to study the market for the 13-story brick building at Ross Street and Second Avenue, which houses the URA, the Pittsburgh Housing Authority and city zoning and planning offices.

The board also approved plans for the Federal-North intersection on the North Side; selling a former hostel in Allentown to the city for a new police station; and long-term planning for Larimer. Members did not, however, discuss the job status of URA Director Patrick Ford, who is on paid leave.

The city spends more than $1 million yearly on the Robin Civic Building, its second largest Downtown after the City-County Building on Grant Street.

A new hotel is going up across Ross Street and URA board Chairman Yarone Zober said the market may be ripe for selling the structure, which was named for Mr. Robin, late URA chairman and an architect of the city's redevelopment, in 1983.

It was built in 1908 as the headquarters for Jones & Laughlin Steel Co. After J&L moved to Gateway Center -- one of Mr. Robin's signature projects as the URA's first executive director -- it sold the building in 1952 to the city and the Community Chest of Allegheny County, now the United Way.

"In effect 200 Ross Street became the general headquarters of Pittsburgh's first renaissance," reads a historical marker inside the building.

But operating costs are mounting -- it costs $12 per square foot to maintain the building, while the industry standard is about $8 -- and going there for zoning permits and planning hearings can be a foreboding experience for city residents and businesses.

"Is it better for the taxpayers of the city of Pittsburgh to own [the building], or better to look to the private market for other uses?" Mr. Zober said.

No developers have yet approached the city with proposals, he said.

In other action, the URA board approved tentative plans for redeveloping the struggling intersection of Federal Street and North Avenue in the North Side. It gave Aiello Development of the Strip District a six-month option to get financing and plans in place for several vacant storefronts at the northwest corner, which would be anchored by a Fifth Third Bank. Retail establishments would be added on Federal, with market rate apartments in upper floors.

Though most of the buildings there now would be demolished, the URA, the developer and community leaders are in talks to save the facade of a four-story building at 4 W. North Ave.

The URA gave the Central Northside Neighborhood Council and the Northside Leadership Conference a six-month window to write redevelopment plans for the Garden Theatre and adjacent historic properties. Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation was doing that, but has withdrawn.

The board granted $25,000 to East Liberty Development Inc. to come up with plans that would help connect Larimer with booming retail, housing and business development in nearby East Liberty. The proposed development corridor would start at Larimer Avenue and Broad Street and continue at the Larimer Avenue Bridge.

It agreed to pay up to $580,000 to Wilbur Smith Associates to engineer the reconstruction of Market Square. Some of that amount will be paid back through a grant from the Heinz Endowments.

It also deeded a former hostel in Allentown to the city, which plans to turn it into the new home of the Zone 3 police station. The city may end up selling the current Zone 3 site in the South Side Flats to a private developer, Mr. Zober said, just as it is contemplating with the Robin Building.