Hotel-condo plan on Mount Washington faces many hurdles
Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at 01:00PMPittsburgh Post-Gazette - May 05, 2009
By Rich Lord
A plan to replace the derelict building next to the Monongahela Incline with a hotel and condominiums is about to embark on its own steep climb through the Pittsburgh bureaucracy and up the slippery slope of Mount Washington politics.
Chicago developer Steven Beemsterboer's $80 million proposal, called One Grandview Avenue, would put a 140-room hotel and some 50 condos on the site of the long-vacant Edge Restaurant. The plan, though, calls for changes in land-use rules that have been hashed out over decades, and trading a piece of privately owned woodland for a sliver of the city's newest park.
Those processes, which may start within weeks and should involve public hearings and votes, could pit those desperate for an economic shot in the arm against those concerned about the scale of the proposed development.
Read more...
