It was a year ago this month that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced, as the Post-Gazette reported it, “a $62 million investment in an ambitious 10-year plan to give Downtown a makeover.”
“The state’s contribution is part of an estimated $600 million committed by state, county and city governments along with private companies and local nonprofits,” the P-G reported then.
“It’s part of a 10-year plan to build more housing, revamp public spaces and bring to life a new vision of Downtown as more than towering office buildings — and perhaps the neighborhood’s next significant transformation.”
Further, the P-G noted how that $600 million is made up of a “patchwork of funding.” In addition to the state giving $62 million, the City of Pittsburgh, through the Urban Redevelopment Authority, is committing $22.1 million and a group of foundations and companies including Giant Eagle, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Heinz Endowments have pledged at least $40 million.
At the time, those “initial commitments” were projected to “help spur an additional $376.9 million” from real estate developers, Shapiro said.
But a very predictable thing has happened on the way to Pittsburgh’s next taxpayer-funded “renaissance”: The usual suspects want even more public money.
“Now, developers behind several of those transformations are seeking additional state funding to bring projects across the finish line. Many have applied for grants through the state’s Redevelopment Assistance and Capital Program (RACP), which supports hundreds of economic development projects across the state each year,” the P-G says.
But where does this all end? Likely with projects that did not deserve taxpayer dollars in the first place being given more taxpayer dollars, never mind that it was more than intimated that the first bolus of public money was all that was needed to get them over the proverbial “finish line.”
What a racket. And here, briefly, per the P-G’s reportage, is a partial anatomy of this racket:
First, there’s the much-ballyhooed conversion of the Wood Street YWCA into a giant apartment complex. That project went belly-up in a muck hole of mortgage default and lawsuits.
Now, Point Park University is seeking $5.5 million in taxpayer money to help create $11 million worth of student apartments, common areas and student spaces. But Point Park is a tax-exempt private university.
So, an initially tax-paying development will become a tax-exempt entity?
Point Park also wants taxpayers to pony up half of the $8 million cost to convert the failed, and taxpayer-funded, Lord & Taylor department store (one of then-Mayor Tom Murphy’s coup disgraces) for educational purposes.
Again, we must suppose, off the tax rolls.
Then there’s the darling of darling projects, the conversion of the iconic Gulf Tower from offices to a luxury hotel and residential units and some ground-floor retail. Now the conversion price tag has increased 10 percent, to a quarter-of-a-billion dollars. And developer Rugby Realty, in conjunction with Left Lane Development, wants more taxpayer dollars to help.
Developers claim that the success of the building is a “bellwether for the region’s post-COVID renewal.”
Yada, yada, yada. If we had a dollar for every developer that called his or her respective project a “bellwether” for Pittsburgh, well, you know how that saying ends – we’d be rich.
Two other developers are seeking a combined $20 million in public funds for their private conversions.
But the one project that really should stick in the taxpayers’ craw is this, again per the P-G:
“The owners of the Omni William Penn Hotel are asking for $40 million to significantly upgrade the iconic property, open for more than a century.
“According to the [RACP] funding application, plans include renovating the hotel’s lobby and three of its food and drink outlets: the Terrace Room, Speakeasy and Palm Court. The fitness center, public restrooms, meeting rooms and guest suites would also see improvements.
“The hotel’s projected revenue alone cannot support the $80 million projected cost of all renovations, the application says. But state funding would ‘ensure the hotel continues to serve future generations’ as one of Downtown’s historic landmarks.”
But by its very own admission, the Omni project is not economically efficacious. Why on earth should taxpayers be forced to subsidize such a loser?
Talk about a new low for Pittsburgh’s “renaissance” racket. And how much lower will those involved go in pursuit of these evergreen, but increasingly moldy, taxpayer molestations?
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
