Developer Bob Mistick was all smiles during last week’s Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh board meeting, and will be for some time.
At its Oct. 12 meeting the board not only authorized $15 million in tax-free bond funding for his firm to renovate 75 affordable housing units that Mistick owns in partnership with the Northside Coalition for Fair Housing, it also approved another $36 million for property improvements to Crawford Square. Mistick will be the contractor for that work, too.
“It’s kind of unusual because just this morning I was yelling at Shirley on the phone about getting some things done on the North Side,” said Mistick. “And now here we all are, one big family.”
Shirley Rucker, Northside Coalition’s board president, said she has fun working with Mistick.
“I just want to thank everybody,” she said. “And tell you Bob has already done some great work on some of the houses—I wouldn’t mind moving into one of them.”
The 75 units on the North Side, scattered in 43 buildings in the California-Kirkbride and Central Northside neighborhoods, represents just the first phase of property rehabilitation for a total of 324 units, which will take place over the next eight years.
Because the units date to between 1870 and 1910, URA Housing Director Bob Cummings said historic tax credits will account for some of the project funding.
“The plan includes historic renovations of the vast majority of the units and the new construction of some units in a later phase to replace obsolete units,” he said.
“Renovations will include new roofs, windows, flooring, appliances, and updated kitchens and bathrooms. Most of the units will be gutted and reframed. The approximate construction cost per unit is $142,000. All units will be rented to households with incomes at or below 60 percent of the area median income.”
In response to a question from board member Jim Ferlo about handicapped accessibility—which the authority is required to provide in more units than in the past—Mistick said the historic nature of many of the buildings limits what he can do in terms of wheelchair ramps and wider doorways. But he will add those, and features like bathroom grab bars and lower light switches where possible.
Such modifications will be much easier, he said, when renovating the Crawford Square units in the Hill District. The authority board authorized issuing $36 million in bonds to renovate the development’s 348 units, 294 of which are subsidized.
Last year, the covenants requiring a potion of the development to be affordable expired and some of the original partners want to sell—meaning all the units would be market-rate. The city arranged for the partners to be bought out and established new covenants with remaining owner McCormack Barron that will maintain affordability for another 30 years.
Mistick, Ferlo, and fellow board members Pittsburgh Councilman Danny Lavelle and state Rep. Ed Gainey praised Mayor Bill Peduto and board Chair Kevin Acklin for moving quickly to preserve the affordable housing in the Hill.
Cummings said because Crawford Square dates only to the 1980s, the scope of the work will be less extensive than that needed for the North Side properties and primarily includes updating mechanical systems and appliances with a focus on making the property more sustainable and energy efficient.
“There will be one less unit, as we are combining two one-bedroom units to make a single three-bedroom unit,” he said.
Mistick said the work on both the North Side and Hill projects will not require any current tenants to move during the renovations, which should take about two years.
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