Pittsburgh Planning Commission OKs plans for new FNB headquarters in Lower Hill District

The development of the former Civic Arena site in the Lower Hill District cleared another hurdle in approvals for its $1 billion plan.

But it took more than five hours of testimony Tuesday at the Pittsburgh Planning Commission before the vote to approve the first phase of the project.

It was the latest regulatory hurdle the project has cleared after more than 30 government or community meetings over the course of several years.

Construction is set to begin in the summer and should be finished by 2024.

Most of those who spoke were in favor of the project, and those who were against it weren’t critical of the overall project. They asked for continued scrutiny of the project because of a lengthy history of unfulfilled promises related to development in the neighborhood.

Pittsburgh Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle, a Hill District resident who has been active in the project since before the Civic Arena was demolished more than a decade ago, supported approval.

“If I felt this was harmful, I wouldn’t be here today,” Lavelle said. “I will admit, there’s still more work to be done. This is Step One.”

Lavelle asked to be held accountable to “ensuring those loose ends actually get tied up. We’re going to keep having those conversations … because the lives of the Hill District residents require that.”

The first phase of the project will be anchored by a 24-story, $200 million office tower that will be the headquarters for FNB Corp. at Washington Place and Bedford Avenue.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are leading development of the site, which has long been billed as a way to revitalize the Hill District.

Those involved in the project have pledged to complete the project differently than the Civic Arena’s development in the 1950s and 1960s, when residential and commercial areas in the neighborhood were razed to make way for the former home of the Penguins.

“Intention in development matters,” Kimberly Ellis, a Hill District resident who serves as a historical consultant for the project, told the planning commission.

She provided an overview of the history of the neighborhood and how the city’s leaders failed to make good on promises they made before the Civic Arena was built. Apartment buildings, a cultural center and more were part of the initial plans, but they didn’t come to fruition.

Instead, what happened was “benign neglect of the area,” Ellis said.

The redevelopment of the site is different this time as people including Ellis, Lavelle and Urban Redevelopment Authority Deputy Director Diamonte Walker — all Hill District residents — have been involved throughout the process, Ellis said.

“Let’s move forward with a new vision that honors and repairs that past that creates a better design for the future and forges a new equitable path of shared prosperity,” she told the planning commission.

Ellis is a niece of the late August Wilson, the celebrated playwright from the Hill District whose body of work drew from the Black society he observed there.

In advance of the meeting, the Buccini/Pollin Group, the firm that’s leading the project for the Pens, reaffirmed their commitment in an open letter to the community.

Several residents and neighborhood leaders provided written and video testimony to the commission.

In the letter, the Buccini/Pollin Group cited 13 “contractually-binding commitments” that ensure the project meets or exceeds longstanding agreements with civic groups and Hill District residents. They include millions of dollars to pay for further development in the neighborhood.

Residents will have a chance to apply for jobs to work on the project when the Lower Hill First Source Employment Opportunity Center opens later this month at Hill House, 1835 Centre Ave.

FNB has also committed $7 million to programs that aim to improve the neighborhood and foster small business development.

Other plans include a concert venue, commercial, retail, residential and parking spaces.

The area will be adjacent to a cap over Interstate 579 that is expected to be finished later this year. It will include a park over the highway that will connect the Hill District to Downtown.

“My hope is that this project gets it right,” said lifelong Hill District resident Brenda Tate, 72.

Among the conditions the planning commission imposed on the project was creating a dashboard so residents can track the agreements that were made by the developers and how they were met. It was suggested by commission Chair Christine Mondor to “make sure progress and accountability is maintained.”

Mondor and commission members Lawshawn Burton-Faulk, Becky Mingo, Jennifer Askey, Fred Brown, Dina Blackwell and Jean Holland Dick voted to approve the plan. Commissioners Sabina Deitrick and Rachel O’Neill didn’t vote because they left the meeting before the vote was taken.