East Allegheny's wallflower days may be over.

The North Side neighborhood has seen a boomlet of new arrivals in the past two years, and one developer is putting his stamp on the future with a 30-property construction blitz.

In 2006, after renovating seven scattered houses in Lawrenceville, October Development wanted to amass properties for a stronger impact. It found them in East Allegheny, which includes the business district along East Ohio Street and the residential areas around it on both sides of Interstate 279.

Meanwhile, the North Side Leadership Conference has focused its efforts on the neighborhood, starting with pushing its old name -- Deutschtown -- as its new name.

Over the past two years, the conference's development fund has focused its investment in new businesses and its state Main and Elm Street money on the neighborhood while calling for more police presence in the business corridor.

"Deutschtown is the front doorstep of the entire North Side," said conference Director Mark Fatla, whose organization is applying for funds to rehabilitate and build 25 homes on both sides of Deutschtown, east and west of Interstate 279.

October's partners, Allie DePasquale and Joey Scoleri, bought 17 properties two years ago from two owners and have since acquired 13 more. All but one in the first of six phases is pre-sold, three of them new townhouses on James Street. Not only do they have a waiting list, but Mr. DePasquale said he decided to keep one of the homes as his own.

He decided to move to Deutschtown "after getting a feel for the neighborhood after three months."

The city's 10-year tax abatement on investment, which applies in about 20 neighborhoods, "is helping us a whole lot."

The tax break may have been the spur, but a group of residents have pulled the horse for years.

Realtor Susan Meadowcroft said the East Allegheny Community Council has been "a corps of dedicated, active people whose day-to-day work makes the neighborhood better. That catches on."

Nicholas Kyriazi, a longtime resident and council member, said the council's 1982 project, Deutschtown Square, attracted a great mix of people -- gays, straights, couples, couples with kids, singles, blacks and whites and a wide range of incomes.

"The three new tenants in my newly restored apartment building all moved here to be able to walk to work," he said. "One moved from Squirrel Hill, one moved from Shadyside, and the other moved from Michigan."

He said the council prefers that a private developer take over renovations. "We are attempting to get Al DePasquale to do more interior restoration than he has done so far, but other than that, we are pleased with his work."

"And we have lost some slumlords" because of him, said Lynn Glorieux, secretary of the community council. She persuaded her husband 16 years ago to move from Wexford, "and it wasn't for investment," she said. "I wanted to be in a place where I could make a difference."

At the end of the first year in the neighborhood, she said, "I remember saying in church that my wish in the new year was for people to live in the houses on my street. One-third of the houses were empty. Now, two are."

Residents Ed and Mary Ann Graf invested first in the Priory Hotel and Grand Hall in 1986 and opened Priory Fine Pastries on East Ohio Street four years ago, hoping to encourage others. Since then, an art gallery, a leather shop, a bistro and a Rita's franchise have arrived.

"The neighborhood feels very upbeat about what we're now calling Deutschtown," said Mr. Graf. "When people used to say they were moving to the North Side, it was always the Mexican War Streets." Deutschtown was a bit of a wallflower before, he admitted, "but now I think we're probably more hip than they are."

One difference is real estate prices. A solid rehab might still sell for $150,000 in Deutschtown. That price was no longer realistic in the Mexican War Streets by 1999.

Bostonians Steve Morse, 29 and Ann Kraus, 26, could afford to buy in Deutschtown "without borrowing a lot of money," said Mr. Morse. "I had visited Pittsburgh on a job several times, and when we were looking for places to go, it fit our criteria. We still have city living and don't have to drive our car on days off." He works for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and she is studying architectural engineering.

Among their neighbors are -- or soon will be -- a young doctor from the Midwest; a transplanted Californian; a couple of boomerangs in their 20s; and an engineer from England, whose wife went on the Deutschtown House Tour last year and asked him to buy her a house.

Eric Ellsworth and Holly O'Donnell, both 34, moved from Washington, D.C., two years ago when he took a job with a cancer diagnostics start-up.

"It reminds me of the neighborhood I grew up in," Adams-Morgan, which went from rough to fashionable in the past 20 years, said Mr. Ellsworth. "We got a great house for a great price. Holly has a book club in the neighborhood, and there's a lot of hanging out on people's porches" and stoops.

"There's no way that if people start thinking about living in the city these neighborhoods won't turn back into great places."

"It definitely feels like things are on the move," said Ms. O'Donnell, a career developer for the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. "A lot of young people, people from other parts of Pittsburgh, from out of town, with kids and without and interracial couples. It's exciting to be part of it."

Selena Schmidt, 39, administrative assistant to City Council President Doug Shields, recently moved back to the neighborhood and likes it for its possibilities. Deutschtown's new residents "are still trying to figure out what their role is," she said. "There's a spirit here of things still to be done."

Erin Conley, 39, a sales rep for ThyssenKrupp Elevator Co., moved from Bloomfield into a house the October team renovated. "Our Rotary meets at Max's Allegheny Tavern, and my friends hang out there on Fridays. So now I can leave my car parked in front of my house after work on Fridays."

Her price, $165,000 with a soft second mortgage from the Urban Redevelopment Authority plus the tax abatement, "made it very affordable," she said.

Mr. DePasquale said his clients aren't hung up on old neighborhood reputations. "This is an extension of Downtown to them, and they want the access. They don't have biases against the North Side" like so many non-North Siders do. "They're judging it on its merits."