Pittsburgh Lofts & New Condos

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - July 17, 2008
By Bill Toland

Today, the spread of green to the immediate north of Parkway Center Mall is an unused driving range. But a Florida-based contractor and a local developer want to turn those 26 acres into a 10-building, 418-unit "high-end residential village" of town homes, lofts and condos.

DeLorenzo & Co. LLC, based in Moon, began scouting the location two years ago and was the local fixer for Coral Gables' SouthStar Development Partners, which bought the property in spring 2007 for $1.1 million.

They've been touting the proposed development as "transit oriented" -- a high-density, close-to-the-bus line complex that would allow residents to get Downtown in a jiffy or walk to work at the Parkway Center offices nearby. Cities across the country are promoting high-density housing near transportation hubs to cut down on urban sprawl and to make better use of mass transit, taking cars off the highways.

The project, to be called City Vista at Parkway, began to take shape this week, with renderings that were unveiled before the city's planning commission. Lynn R. DeLorenzo, principal with DeLorenzo & Co., said the units would start at $150,000, with most of them between 800 and 2,100 square feet.

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