Recent News
- East Liberty apartments in Pittsburgh's almost fully booked
East Liberty Place North, a 54-unit apartment and retail development built as the first stage to replace a former East Mall high-rise in Pittsburgh, opened Thursday and is almost fully occupied. That’s according to the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority and The Community Builders Inc., the nonprofit housing developer that under took the project located at a key gateway parcel on the north side of East Liberty’s Penn Avenue business district. The URA and The Community Builders celebrated the completion and opening of the project today, which coast a total of $12.3 million to develop. “The response to this project has exceeded expectations in almost every way,” said Jim Eby, Senior Project Manager with The Community Builders, in a prepared statement. “The lease-up has gone much more quickly than our projections. It proves that there is a strong demand for quality, well-designed rental property in East Liberty. To have made good progress on the retail space in a quiet commercial market is gratifying as well.” The apartments, which will also be managed by The Community Builders, include both market rate and rent-restricted units with rents ranging from $325 to $825 for one-bedroom units and $435 to $1100 for two-bedroom units. Utilities are estimated to be $95 per month for the one-bedrooms and $105 for the two-bedrooms. The company reports that 50 of the 54 units have already been leased, including all market rate units. The Community Builders also has letters of intent with tenants for all of the 11,000 square feet of first floor commercial space. With the new project, the Community Builders now owns and manages 283 rentals in the neighborhood, most of which have been developed in the past ten years. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl emphasized that the new mixed-use development provides new quality apartments for both the former residents of the East Mall high-rise who lived for years in substandard housings as well as newcomers to the neighborhood. East Liberty Place North is shooting for a LEED gold certification and would be The Community Builders’ first LEED property. Financing came from a host of sources, including Aegon USA Realty Advisors, Dollar Bank, the URA, Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Citizens Bank/Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, The Pittsburgh Foundation, and The Home Depot Foundation. The architect was Downtown-based Strada Architecture LLC and suburban Boston-based Stuart Associates Architects, Inc., and was built by Pittsburgh-based Sota Construction. The Community Builders expects to soon turn to develop East Liberty Place South, proposing a mixed-use building of 75 apartments and 24,000 square feet of retail, across Penn Avenue from the new building. Pittsburgh Business Times - by Tim Schooley
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