University Times

Pitt’s plans to add 500 beds on campus passed a couple of hurdles as the City Planning Commission gave preliminary approval to the 10-story, $33.2-million dorm and the Pitt Board of Trustees property and facilities committee okayed funding for the project.

The property and facilities committee Monday also approved the purchase of the University Club, contingent on further inspections, for a price tag of $3.1 million.

The dorm will be a sister facility to the recently opened Pennsylvania Hall, to be located just west of that building, according to city planning and University officials.

The new residence hall will bring Pitt’s capacity to 6,850 beds on the Pittsburgh campus, according to Executive Vice Chancellor Jerome Cochran. Pitt intends to continue guaranteeing three years of on-campus housing for undergraduates who want it, Cochran said, and that demand has increased over the past few years. In addition, Pitt announced plans in December to increase its undergraduate enrollment on the Pittsburgh campus by about 200 students beginning this fall. “We anticipate that the all our residence halls, including this new one, will operate at capacity,” Cochran said.

The new dorm, which will feature two kinds of accommodations – three- and five-person suites and “hotel style” double rooms – is expected to be built in time for fall 2006 occupancy, Cochran said.

The new dorm also will include common study rooms, a cafe and vending area, lounges, laundry rooms and a multi-purpose room. The building was designed by architects Perkins Eastman, who also designed Pennsylvania Hall.

Construction of the 160,000 sq.-ft. residence hall will begin this spring, Cochran said.

Funding for the project will come from Pitt’s auxiliary debt, according to materials distributed Feb. 28 by the property and facilities committee. The annual operating cost, including debt service, of the as yet unnamed residence hall is expected to be $3.3 million, which will be offset by the annual income from room fees, Cochran pointed out.

Pitt has no plans for building or purchasing additional student housing facilities, but Cochran did not rule out the possibility. “Once this dorm is built, we will wait to see if there is a future demand for additional housing before we think about another one,” he said. He declined to speculate on future sites for on-campus housing.

The property and facilities committee, which has authority to act for the full board on construction projects in excess of $1 million and to approve property transactions of more than $500,000, also approved purchase of the University Club, an 81-year-old building at 123 University Place.

The private club decided last year to disband due to dwindling membership and increased debts.

Pitt is paying $3.1 million for the eight-story building and the one-acre property, which includes the adjoining 50-space parking lot. The 83,000 sq.-ft. building includes banquet and meeting rooms, 50 sleeping rooms, offices, a library, a recreation facility and an outdoor patio.

The deal will not be finalized for 60 days, Cochran stressed. “The sales agreement will be executed this week, but it will provide an additional 60 days for a further inspection by the University to determine if there are any significant issues that would make us have second thoughts before the actual closing on the building, which I anticipate to be on or about April 30.”

Pitt is keeping its options open for how it will use the building, Cochran said. “If and when the sale is consummated, we will put the right people at the University together to engage in a planning process to take a look at what best fits in the building,” he told the University Times Feb. 28. “There’s liable to be an endless list of uses [suggested], and we’ll consider them,” he said. “I recognize that much has been said and will be said about the its possible use as a faculty club. I also recognize that, over the course of years, a number of schools have indicated they believe we can support an on-campus conference center. I clearly would like to find uses that don’t require institutional subsidy, that is uses that would be revenue-generating. One thing I can tell you: There are no intentions to demolish the building.”

In other actions, the Board of Trustees property and facilities committee: * Approved construction of an upper-campus underground electrical substation, to accommodate increased demand for electricity. The two-part project includes creating 5,500 square feet for an underground transformer for Duquesne Light Co. equipment and a 1,800 sq.-ft. space in the projected new dorm’s basement for University equipment that would provide emergency back-up electricity.

The cost of the project is expected to be $5.6 million, with annual debt service of $321,000, both of which will be funded from Pitt’s education and general budget.

* Approved step I of renovations for the University-owned Loeffler Building, located at Forbes and Meyran avenues. Currently, the 1st floor and basement (11,000 square feet) is 80 percent occupied with retail business, with 20,000 square feet of vacant office space on the upper three floors set to be upgraded, Pitt officials said.

Renovations, at a projected cost of $2.9 million to be paid from auxiliary reserves, include installation of code-compliant HVAC, electrical, mechanical and plumbing infrastructure, as well as the addition of an elevator, a new roof, window replacements and facade improvements.

Cochran said that Pitt intends to lease the space to retail businesses, and will not undertake the renovations until lease commitments are secured. If the building is fully occupied, the University expects annual lease revenue to be $580,000, which will more than offset projected annual operations costs of $200,000.

* Approved a lease with Cityview Properties to rent space on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th floors of the Parkvale Building at 200 Meyran Avenue for clinical facilities for the Clinical Research Education Institute and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. The five-year lease is set at a fixed annual cost of $722,000. The building also will house the Department of Psychiatry’s Office of Grants and Contracts.

* Approved a five-year sublease of space on the 1st and 3rd floors in the Cellomics building (on Second Avenue in the Pittsburgh Technology Center) for research by the Graduate School of Public Health’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health. The average annual rental fee is $579,000 for 22,000 square feet of laboratory space. Options to extend the sublease also are included in the agreement.

-Peter Hart