Pittsburgh's Urban Redevelopment Authority announced $43.2 million in state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grants

Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority has announced 31 projects throughout the city are receiving $43.2 million in state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grants.

“It’s tremendous the resources that are coming into our area,” said City Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle, who serves on the URA board.

The grant program, administered by the Pennsylvania Office of the Budget, provides funding for “the acquisition and construction of regional economic, cultural, civic, recreational and historical improvement projects.”

• Among the largest grant allocations announced was $4 million earmarked for Oakland Crossings, a mixed-use development that has generated controversy in the city’s Oakland neighborhood. The grant is meant to help pay for land acquisition, site work, infrastructure and utilities on the project.

• A restoration project at Allegheny Riverfront Park in Pittsburgh’s Central Business District will see $1.5 million in grant funding, while an additional $1 million will offset costs of a new building for Beechview-based nonprofit Casa San Jose.

• The Community Empowerment Association in the city’s Homewood South neighborhood will receive $1 million to modernize its site with an elevator and other ADA improvements.

• City Club Apartments, a new high-rise tower slated to be built atop the former YWCA building in the Central Business District, will receive a $2 million grant.

• UPMC Children’s Hospital Heart Institute in Lawrenceville will receive the same amount for renovations and expansions there.

• Projects to rehabilitate Congregation Beth Shalom in Squirrel Hill South, renovate Duquesne University labs in Bluff, perform restoration work at Frick Park and continue work at the Hunt Armory ice skating rink in Shadyside are all receiving $1 million in the grants.

• The Pitt BioForge project in Hazelwood is slated to see $1 million meant to help build a manufacturing facility and institute to advance manufacturing innovations and to fund training for the workforce there.

• The grant program will provide $3 million for work at the Hazelwood Green Brownfield Redevelopment, $1 million to renovate Hillel Academy Gym in Squirrel Hill South, $3 million to redesign and renovate the historic Horace Mann School into residential and commercial spaces in Marshall-Shadeland and $1 million to expand facilities at the Pittsburgh Glass Center.

• A $3.6 million allocation will provide funding for a project that aims to create flexible spaces for companies focused on workforce training, energy innovation and incubation at the Energy Innovation Center in the Upper Hill District.

• Saints Peter and Paul Event Center in East Liberty are slated to receive $2.5 million to demolish the school there and construct a new two-story building that will be attached to school with office space, meeting rooms and a black box theater.

Others getting funding

Other initiatives set to receive funding include:

• The Urban Impact Foundation in Perry South;

• St. Agnes School Western PA Early Childhood Learning Apprenticeship Hub in West Oakland, renovation;

• Historic Crawford Grill in the Middle Hill District, renovations;

• Privado 14, Downtown;

• Kingsley Association in Larimer, pool area renovations;

• National Aviary in Allegheny Center, construction of a new state-of-the-art veterinary hospital.