An architectural curiosity long viewed as part of the downtown skyline during Pittsburgh Pirates games now has the approval to be redeveloped into an affordable housing conversion.
After the proposal for 120 Cecil Way downtown was tabled last month when it was presented for approval to the Pittsburgh Planning Commission without a briefing, Boston-based Beacon Communities received the commission vote it needed in its July 1 meeting to move forward with redeveloping a former steam plant building into 97 apartments.
The project is a joint venture of Beacon Communities, a firm currently pursuing three other downtown projects at the moment, and Pittsburgh Scholar House, with the goal of creating mostly larger apartments to be made available to income-eligible single parents pursuing their education and their children, with 47 of the apartments in the project to be dedicated through the educational nonprofit program.
It’s a project for which Pittsburgh Scholar House has already generated ample support from the Heinz Endowments, the Hillman Foundation and the Richard King Mellon Foundation, with the foundation support to help provide affordable apartments to residents earning between 20% and 80% of the area median income.