The Pittsburgh Stadium Authority is moving ahead with plans to build a 798-space parking garage on the North Shore while giving the Pirates and Steelers another year to start their next development — a 250-unit residential and retail complex.
Authority board members voted 4-1 Tuesday to notify the Steelers and the Pirates that they would be moving ahead with the garage, which would be built in part of the 1,200-space Lot 1, the surface parking lot closest to Heinz Field.
The garage will cost an estimated $15 million and net 600 new spaces, taking into account those in the Lot 1 being lost to the construction. The work is expected to start this spring and take a year.
Voting against the measure was board member Michael Danovitz, who favored a less expensive plan to expand the existing 1,321-space West General Robinson Street garage by 575 spaces. That proposal would have netted 507 spaces at a cost of $12.5 million.
“I think we have a less costly option on the table which needs to be explored further,” he said. “It’s a less costly option to meet our fiduciary obligations.”
But the authority felt the nearly 100 extra spaces gained and the Lot 1 location made the new garage the better option, executive director Mary Conturo said.
“West Gen is still a location for a possible future expansion but for the next garage. We thought that Lot 1 was a better place to go,” she said.
The authority is required to replace parking under its option agreement with the two professional sports teams to develop the land between Heinz Field and PNC Park.
It intends to finance the construction by pledging parking revenues from the West General Robinson Street garage and other facilities to pay off debt.
The garage is needed to replace 541 spaces being lost to new or recent development.
Not all of Lot 1 would be used for the garage construction.
Ms. Conturo said a final location has yet to be determined but the preliminary indication is that it would be built at the back of the site near the football stadium.
The lot is heavily used by daily commuters and Steelers, Pirates, and Pitt fans on game days.
Asked how the authority intends to manage the construction during baseball and football seasons, Ms. Conturo replied, “Very carefully.”
Mark Hart, the Steelers’ director of planning and development, said the construction “will certainly have some effect” on game day parking but added that the football team and others are working to minimize that.
In moving forward with plans for the garage, the authority board also gave the two teams and their master developer, Columbus-based Continental Real Estate Cos., until Dec. 1, 2016, to buy the land needed for their next development — a six-story, 250-unit apartment and retail complex with integral parking to be built on Lot 4 near PNC Park.
Without the extension, they would have had to buy the land by the end of this month. It is the fourth extension the teams have received.
Ms. Conturo said the additional year made sense. “This way we won’t have two construction projects going on over there at the same time.”
“I think it’s in everyone’s interest that we pause and get this right,” Mr. Hart added.
Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
First Published: November 24, 2015, 8:48 p.m.
