The project, on the drawing board for several years, appears poised to move ahead, with a $30 million request for state capital budget funds being considered in Harrisburg.
Proposed by FWG Realty Inc. and local investors, the complex would provide more than 1 million square feet of space on a 10-acre site for physician offices and commercial businesses, a 200- to 250-room hotel, a 1,500-car parking garage and residential condominiums. The complex would be built in three phases over a five- to seven-year period.
"There is a capital budget request on our behalf, but I can't comment further," said Frank Gustine Jr., partner in FWG. Gustine and Ed Pope, a local architect, head the development team. Joining Gustine and Pope in the project are Lou Molnar and members of the late Bill Baierl family.
Gustine's father, the late Frank Gustine, an All-Star infielder for the Pirates from 1946-48, operated Gustine's tavern on Forbes Avenue in Oakland for many years.
The first phase of the project would put a 160,000-square-foot physicians building on the corner of Forbes and Craft avenues including space for relocation of the Dialysis Clinic Inc. that occupies a building on Craft within the project site. A second, 100,000-square-foot building catering to business office tenants would be built on top of the central parking garage with entrances from Fifth and Forbes avenues. The hotel would be built on a site formerly occupied by Lamar Advertising closer to Forbes.
An agreement in principle with the Dialysis Clinic has been obtained.
Once financing is in place and city approvals obtained, demolition and site preparation could occur later this year, and construction could begin in 2009, with the first building completed in about 2 1/2 years.
About 60 percent to 70 percent of the financing for the project's first phase will be private. Negotiations are under way with lenders for pre-construction loans.
Plans for the second phase would include as many as four buildings, with about 500,000 square feet of space. Those structures, to be built in the center of the project site off Fifth and Craft, will cater to business offices, but could include educational uses.
The developers have acquired most of the properties needed for the project but are in negotiations for several parcels, including smaller properties owned by the University of Pittsburgh or the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
"Gustine provided my board with a concept of the project, and the board was receptive," said Georgia Petropoulos, executive director of the Oakland Business Improvement District. "We are excited to see that section come to life, since the project is very much needed because it is the entry point into Oakland."
Petropoulos said the site is located near Carlow University, UPMC Magee-Womens hospital and UPMC Montefiore hospital.
"Oakland has a high demand for space, and the Oakland Portal project is going to meet that demand in key ways. ... It should be a fabulous addition to the city and the region," said Dewitt M. Peart, president of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, which markets the region to companies worldwide.
The developers will seek funding under a tax-increment finance plan to construct the 1,500-car parking garage, expected to cost about $35 million.
Rep. Don Walko, D-North Side, said the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority and the state are helping to secure financing for the parking garage. Walko said that of the $30 million authorized in the budget for the project, about $2 million is earmarked for the garage.
Before the amount is approved, the state must raise its debt ceiling to meet the budget requirements, he said.
"We (the delegation from this region) recognize Oakland as a regional center, and we realize this portal site is underutilized," Walko said.
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