Bakery Square developers have abandoned plans to expand the tech hub’s commercial footprint and instead look to build nearly 200 apartments on the site of an adjoining shopping plaza.
John Kamin, a lawyer representing developer Walnut Capital, briefed the City Planning Commission Tuesday on the proposed building, which would include 199 apartment units as well as office space and residential amenities on the ground floor.
The new residential building would sit adjacent to Trader Joe’s, nestled between Penn Avenue and the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway.
The area is part of a broader, 14-acre expansion of Bakery Square supported by a city-led zoning revision last summer. Though Walnut Capital originally planned to use the additional acreage to develop up to 1.5 million square feet of office space, representatives from the company hinted at their uncertainty surrounding those plans earlier this year. The proposal shared on Tuesday would mark the first development to take place within the expansion.
“This is the first phase of multiple phases that will be happening over the course of the next several months and several years,” Kamin said.
The city’s zoning regulations require Walnut Capital to reserve at least 5% of new units for residents who earn between 80% and 120% of the area’s median income. Kamin said during the meeting that the development team also intends to apply for the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh’s project-based voucher program, which would require an additional 10% of units to be reserved for households earning 50% of the area’s median income.
“This project is the first phase coming out of a robust, multi-year community process,” Kamin said. “And when I say multi-year, I mean multi-year.”
Walnut Capital began engaging with the East Liberty-based Village Collaborative and Larimer Consensus Group around plans to expand the site in 2021. Those conversations informed a community benefits agreement signed by the three organizations in 2023.
In that agreement, which informs many of the affordability requirements folded into Bakery Square’s current zoning code requirements, Walnut Capital committed to contributing $6 million toward developing for-sale affordable housing in the two neighborhoods.
New developments at Bakery Square help fund the East Liberty Transit Revitalization Investment District, or TRID, through tax revenue. As part of its community benefits agreement, however, Walnut Capital will redirect 10% of those funds directly to community projects.
Mia Hollie is the economic development and housing reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. She can be reached at [email protected].
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