From ‘upsetting’ to affordable: Historic former home of steelmaker and city agencies heading for rebirth as housing

A Downtown Pittsburgh building predating the Great War is set to be sold to a nonprofit and turned into affordable housing and office space.

The John P. Robin Civic Building, at 200 Ross St., contained the offices of the Urban Redevelopment Authority [URA] and other government entities for more than half a century beginning in 1952. On Thursday the URA board voted to sell the historically designated building to ACTION-Housing, a frequent property buyer and partner with the city agency.

With the sale approved, the nonprofit will be able to convert the 104,920-square-foot building into a mixed space including 68 affordable housing units of one to three bedrooms for people making 50% to 80% of the area median income [AMI]. The plans also call for three floors of affordable office and nonprofit space.

ACTION-Housing will pay $3,975,000 for the building. The URA estimates its redevelopment will cost more than $55 million and will be funded through a mix of private and public sources including low-income housing tax credits and historic tax credits.

The sale requires ACTION-Housing to maintain the historic elements of the building, which was listed on the National Register of Historical Buildings in 2021, allowing it to qualify for historic tax credits, according to the URA. And the property will be sold with the requirement that its historically significant façade and interiors are preserved.

The space includes 13 floors and two unfinished basement levels. During Thursday’s board meeting Lena Andrews, newly appointed CEO of ACTION-Housing, recalled spending time in the building while working for the URA during the beginning of her career.

“How exciting is this that we’re taking another step in the renovation of 200 Ross St., a building that started many of our careers, including mine and [URA Executive Director Susheela Nemani-Stanger’s],” Andrews said. “I felt the gravity of that history every day I worked there but also felt the need for investment.”

She noted that she got stuck in the elevator once during her time working there.

“The basement is upsetting,” Andrews added.

The building was constructed in 1908 and served as the headquarters of Jones & Laughlin Steel at a time when industry and manufacturing drove a large portion of the economy. Now, the building might serve as another sort of headquarters as the city, like most of the country, contends with, and seeks to counter, rising housing and rent prices.

Earlier this year , when the idea was brought before the URA board, Kyle Chintalapalli, the board chair and the city’s chief economic development officer, reflected on this.

“It’s a significant building for the redevelopment of Downtown,” he said. “It’s been on so many of our minds: What can the Downtown become?”

On Thursday Chintalapalli returned to that thought, lauding the sale as part of “the importance of continuing to imagine what the Downtown area could be like and taking action to turn it into that neighborhood that we all want to see.”

Eric Jankiewicz is PublicSource’s economic development reporter and can be reached at ericj@publicsource.org or on Twitter @ericjankiewicz.

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