More luxury apartments are coming to Pittsburgh, this time in the Strip District.
Oxford Development Company on Tuesday held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the residential and mixed-use development dubbed Three Crossings.
Vice President of Business Development Shawn Fox said the name is a nod to the Strip District’s industrial past and its residential future.
“Three Crossings represents those former drivers of the economy when you had barge, rail and truck transportation … and this new economy which features transportation of pedestrian access, bicycle access and public transit, and the three uses of the project, which is really live, work and play,” Fox said.
The Yards is the residential component of the project located on a former trucking yard. It will feature 300 studio, 1- and 2-bedroom apartment buildings with monthly rents ranging from $1,100 to more than $2,000. All of the units will be market rate and the development will not feature any affordable housing for low-income residents.
Each unit will have either a balcony or backyard, and residents will have access to a fitness center, a bar and lounge area, and a large outdoor recreation area with riverfront access.
“We call it the Great Lawn in the back of the building,” Fox said. “(It) will look onto the Allegheny and feature gaming areas, a pool, hot tub and a walking trail.”
Fox said the riverfront redevelopment organization Riverlife was integral in figuring out how The Yards would fit into plans to extend Allegheny Riverfront Park from downtown through the Strip District and into Lawrenceville.
The $130 million mixed-use development qualifies for the Local Economic Revitalization Tax Act, or LERTA, and Oxford plans to take advantage of such abatement from the city, county, and school district. Oxford will not have to pay taxes on property improvements for the first year. They’ll pay taxes on 10 percent of the value of improvements during the second year, 20 percent the third year, and so on for 10 years.
Oxford also received $3 million in state grants from PennDOT and the Commonwealth Financing Authority’s Multi-Modal Transportation Fund to support construction of what Fox called “The Hub.”
“We’ll have 575 parking spaces, over 100 bicycle parking spaces … a bicycle repair and rental shop, kayak storage … EV car charging stations, and a lot of other features that … promote the new ways of transportation in urban environments,” Fox said.
The 11-acre Three Crossings development will also include four office buildings with up to 375,000 feet of office space.
The first office building is slated to open in fall 2015, with anchor tenant Rycon Construction, while residents are expected to begin moving into The Yards in spring 2016.
