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Foundations seek tax help to redevelop LTV site in Hazelwood
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Pittsburgh's Urban Redevelopment Authority board is expected to authorize preliminary work Thursday on a tax-increment financing package to spur a proposed $900 million redevelopment of the 178-acre former LTV coke works site in Hazelwood.
URA board members are expected to vote on a series of actions that would get the ball rolling on an $80 million to $90 million TIF that would supply the funding for utilities, roads and other public improvements on the long-dormant site, the city's last brownfield, in the heart of Hazelwood.
The site is owned by Almono LLC, a consortium made up of the Benedum, Richard King Mellon and McCune foundations and the Heinz Endowments, and managed by the Regional Industrial Development Corp.
Don Smith, RIDC president, said the TIF, possibly the largest in city history, is "fundamental" to the ability of Almono to redevelop the property.
"The remediation and infrastructure requirements are so vast it just wouldn't be possible to do it without support for the infrastructure that needs to go in," Mr. Smith said.
Almono is planning a mixed-use development totaling more than $900 million at the site along the Monongahela River. It would include more than two million square feet of new office and research and development space, as well as up to 1,200 units of housing in the form of townhouses, condos, or apartments.
Mr. Smith said that if the TIF is approved by the city, the school district and the county, Almono and RIDC could be in the position to start office and residential development in 2014.
"The development of this site will continue our efforts to connect our neighborhoods to Pittsburgh's most beautiful natural assets, our riverfronts," Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said in a statement. "There has been tremendous neighborhood investment on both sides of the Monongahela River over the last few years and the much-anticipated transformation of the Hazelwood site will build on this momentum, creating thousands of new jobs and renewing a neighborhood in the process."
First Published January 8, 2013 4:41 pm
