URA hopes for federal funds for Downtown landscaping
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 at 10:45AMPittsburgh Post-Gazette - December 16, 2008
By Mark Belko
With two major redevelopments Downtown expected to reach fruition next year, the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority is looking to improve the landscape in which they will be operating.
Board members are expected to consider an agreement today that would provide up to $1.1 million in federal funds to install granite curbs, terrazzo sidewalks and new street lights and trees along Fifth Avenue between Wood Street and Liberty Avenue in the same block as the developments.
The improvements are targeted for completion next summer, about the same time the new Three PNC Plaza office building and the G.C. Murphy store redevelopment, both on Fifth, will be getting their first occupants.
Less than a block away, at the corner of Fifth and Wood Street, Piatt Place, the former Lazarus-Macy's department store, should be housing its first condominium buyers by that time. It already is home to two restaurants, Capital Grille and McCormick & Schmick's.
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