Urban Redevelopment Authority moves ahead with first phase of Bedford Dwellings project in Hill District

Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority board last week approved plans to sell 28 parcels in the city’s Hill District to advance the first phase of the Bedford Dwellings project.

Pittsburgh-based Trek Development has teamed up with the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh for the first phase in the development, which officials hope will be the first step in a broader initiative meant to bring new housing to the city neighborhood.

The first phase of the project will provide replacement housing for residents of the existing Bedford Dwellings public housing complex, as well as new market-rate units, according to information provided by the URA.

The URA is selling 28 lots at the intersection of Reed and Roberts Street for that phase of the project for $253,800, plus costs.

“The development will transform this vacant land on a key intersection in the neighborhood, allowing residents to relocated from distressed public housing and create an opportunity for residents to live closer to the growing amenities available on Centre Avenue,” URA officials wrote in a report.

R. Daniel Lavelle, who sits on the URA board and represents the Hill District on City Council, said residents living in the new space will have “direct food access opportunities” and will be near the future site of Salem’s Market and Grill, which is expected to open by late fall in the Centre Avenue plaza that previously housed a Shop N’ Save.

Niklas Persson, a lending analyst in the URA’s residential lending department, said the total project cost for this phase of the development is about $62.5 million.

The first phase of the project will include 99 housing units affordable to people making between 30% and 60% of the area median income, he said. Ninety of those units will be replacement units for the Somers Drive site at the current Bedford Dwellings complex.

URA officials said the current Bedford Dwellings complex will be demolished after all current residents have been relocated into the new units. They did not offer a timetable of when that might be.

The first phase of development also includes 24 market-rate units, according to the URA.

The development plans to use Low Income Housing Tax Credits from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.

City officials have said they’re hoping this is just the start of a larger project. This phase will move ahead but future phases could bring additional housing to the neighborhood if the city is awarded a $50 million federal HUD grant that it applied for in December. The Choice Housing Implementation Grant will give out a total of $350 million, with recipients receiving up to $50 million each, the URA said.

If the city receives the grant money, officials are planning to bring more than 800 housing units to the project in later phases.