Highland Wallace – Walnut on Highland

Project Name: Walnut on Highland

Project Description: 117 market rate apartments, 6,000 SF of retail and 182 car parking garage

Financing: Conventional + HTC & State of PA RACP

HTC Buyer: Schneider Electric

Development Budget: $29,000,000

Development Type: Multi-Family, Retail and Parking Garage

Services Provided: Development, HTC Expertise  & Construction

THE SCENARIO

Massaro Properties (MP) LLC teamed with another well-know Pittsburgh developer to respond to an RFP issued by the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh (“URA”). The RFP was to develop two historically significant buildings that had been vacant for 20+ years. Based upon our team’s experience and development proposal we were selected. Our development plan included converting the two buildings into 117 market rate apartments, 6,000 square feet of ground floor retail and a 182 car parking garage.

Since both buildings reside in a designated historic district, MP’s experience developing and financing Historic Tax Credit (“HTC”) was a plus for the team. The Highland Building is a significantly contributing building to the district since it was designed by world renowned architect Daniel Burnham and built for Henry Clay Frick.

COLLABORATION

We also brought our construction expertise to the team, which was important since we needed to develop construction cost estimate early in the development stage. It was also a case of great public/private partnership with URA. The URA was able to obtain a RACP through the state of Pennsylvania for the construction of the parking garage and provide low interest financing.

OPENED IN JUNE 2013

Many developers had attempted to redevelop the project, but our team was able to successfully propose the development and see it to fruition. Through our team’s expertise in HTC, multi-family development, and public/private partnership the development broke ground in March of 2012 and the development was opened in June 2013.