Buying Here: Beechview
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The city's Urban Redevelopment Authority has foreclosed and put on the market four buildings -- 1600, 1601, 1602 and 1619 Broadway Ave. == with hopes of enticing developers to invest in this business district and begin its turnaround. -
Artist's rendering of 1600 and 1602 Broadway Ave. in Beechview after renovation. -
The buildings of 1600 and 1602 Broadway are located on the T-line in Beechview. -
The second-floor view, facing east. -
The apartment, which is behind the former video store. -
The second floor of 1601 Broadway. -
The third floor of 1600 Broadway. -
More of the third floor of 1600 Broadway.
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The panoramic views of the South Hills from the third-floor balcony of 1600 Broadway Ave. are a sight for sore eyes -- especially if you live in Beechview.
For the last five years, residents of that city neighborhood and riders on the LRT have had to look at mostly shuttered storefronts on Broadway that were bought -- then abandoned -- by investor Bernardo Katz. The city's Urban Redevelopment Authority has foreclosed and put on the market four buildings -- 1600, 1601, 1602 and 1619 Broadway Ave. -- with hopes of enticing developers to invest in this business district and begin its turnaround.
"Beechview is a very cool neighborhood," said URA Director Rob Stephany. "I think its proximity to the T makes it interesting."
Mr. Katz defaulted on millions of dollars worth of mortgages and more than $700,000 in loans from the URA that he used to buy these and other commercial properties in Beechview, Oakland and Mt. Lebanon. He fled to his native Brazil in December 2007 and was charged in absentia last year with federal wire and mortgage fraud.
At a glance
- Website: www.beechview.org
- Size: 1.46 square miles
- Population: 8,772 (2000 census)
- School district: Pittsburgh Public (pghboe.net)
- Enrollment: 25,326
- Average 2010 SAT scores: 425 verbal, 446 math, 423 writing
- Taxes on a property assessed at 100,000 : $2,870; City: $1,080 (10.8 mills), school district: $1,392 (13.92 mills), county: $398 (4.69 mills), wage tax: 3 percent (1 percent to the city, 2 percent to the school district)
- Claim to fame: Named for the many beech trees found on its hillsides, Beechview (incorporated as a borough in 1905 and annexed to the city four years later) has the steepest street in hilly Pittsburgh, and quite possibly the world. Canton Street has a grade of 37 percent -- that is, it rises 37 feet per 100 feet of run. So steep is the bottom half, that residents aren't supposed to drive down it.
First Published November 13, 2010 12:00 am
