$7.1 million deposited in fund to revitalize Pittsburgh's Hill District

A $7.1 million infusion of cash has been deposited into a fund that aims to revitalize Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood, the city announced Monday.

The money is now in the Greater Hill District Neighborhood Reinvestment Fund. Administered by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, the fund will make grants for development projects throughout the neighborhood.

The money is coming from the Lower Hill Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance District, a program that provides tax abatements to owners of new buildings on the site of the former Civic Arena for a decade. Half of those abatements — a technical term for tax breaks — are earmarked for the fund.

The site’s developer, Buccini Pollin Group, has advanced the payments, which reflect 10 years’ worth of city, school district and county real estate tax abatements. The money is provided up front so the community can use it now, the city said.

Earlier this month, FNB Corp. broke ground on a $220 million, 26-story tower that will be its headquarters and the anchor of the 28-acre site of the former Civic Arena.

RELATED: Penguins, FNB break ground on tower to anchor Civic Arena development

The Sept. 1 groundbreaking was the latest step in a lengthy effort to redevelop the area, a former residential and commercial neighborhood that was razed in the 1950s to build the Civic Arena. The arena was initially home to the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera and later became the home of the Penguins. The arena also hosted numerous concerts and other events until it was torn down in 2012.

The Penguins own the rights to redevelop the property, which is now used as parking lots. The Penguins also collect revenue from those lots.

They have worked for more than a decade with the URA, city, state and federal officials to come up with a redevelopment plan that met the approval of Hill District residents, many of whom mention the lingering scars and broken promises that have been made to them with regard to the site.

The Buccini Pollin Group, the Penguins and others say the development plan has been crafted so it benefits residents of the entire neighborhood, not just the Lower Hill District where the Civic Arena was.

The $7.1 million payment to the reinvestment fund marks a step toward helping the entire Hill District , said Bomani M. Howze, Buccini Pollin Group vice president for development.

Howze is also a Hill District resident.

“We are excited to have delivered on our promise,” Howze said.

The move was also supported by Mayor Bill Peduto.

“I am grateful that we are not only seeing the development in the Lower Hill move forward to right the wrongs of the past and create opportunities in the historic Hill District, but that our development partners are demonstrating their commitment to the Hill community by providing community investment funding up front,” Peduto said in a statement.

He called the reinvestment fund and the plans that created it “a model” that shows residents and developers can work together to improve an area.

Pittsburgh Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle, who represents the neighborhood on council, will have a voice on how the funds are allocated as a member of an advisory board. He also lauded the move, which he lobbied for as he drove creation of the LERTA that’s provided the money. (LERTA is the term for the program based on Pennsylvania’s Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance Act.)

“The advancement of the LERTA dollars is in keeping with the commitment that I made to the Hill District community: that the development of the Lower Hill would be for the explicit benefit of residents of the Middle and Upper Hill Districts,” Lavelle said.

The money can be used for other projects, community programs, rent and mortgage subsidies and other things to preserve and improve the neighborhood.