by Rich Lord
Following a lengthy community meeting Monday night, the Penguins’ development team released a list of the investments they’re willing to make in the Hill District, if their plan for a 26-story bank tower gets community support, wins city approval and doesn’t face court challenges.
The Penguins-affiliated Pittsburgh Arena Real Estate Development [PAR] and its chosen developer Buccini/Pollin Group [BPG] plan to go before the City Planning Commission to seek approval to build First National Bank’s new headquarters tower, plus around 3.5 acres of terraced open space. The FNB tower and the greenspace would occupy the part of the 28 acre site of the former Civic Arena that is closest to Downtown, adjacent to the Cap Park which is currently under construction.
The Monday night Development Activities Meeting, conducted by the Hill Community Development Corp., was a required step before seeking City Planning Commission consideration. The Hill CDC has said that PAR hasn’t done enough to satisfy pledges made in a 2014 agreement called the Community Collaboration Implementation Plan. That plan sets out seven areas of investment, ranging from cultural preservation to minority- and women-owned business enterprise [M/WBE] inclusion.
At the meeting, BPG attempted to answer that concern by referring to a new 27-page term sheet that it had proffered to the Hill CDC on March 12. After the meeting, Penguins’ Senior Vice President and General Counsel Kevin Acklin released the term sheet.
It lists around $34 million in proposed, ongoing or completed investments in the Hill associated with the FNB tower, plus a shorter list totaling $13.5 million financed via another part of the site, on which a Live Nation concert venue is slated to be built.
Here’s what the term sheet promises in relation to the FNB site:
Planned investments:
- $7.5 million for the Greater Hill District Reinvestment Fund, to be paid up front and via a loan from FNB, which will be repaid with half of the windfall from a tax abatement, and for which the development team will pay the closing costs of roughly $250,000
Vaki Mawema, a managing director and principal at the design firm Gensler, shares a rendering of the proposed Lower Hill District redevelopment during a Development Activities Meeting on March 15, 2021. (Screenshot)
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