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'Blighted' land in high-end neighborhood targeted for homes

BUILDER Online |

In Brief...

The tidy lawns and tony homes of Summerset at Frick Park are far from Pittsburgh's economically depressed neighborhoods. Work on the next expansion could begin early next year if the URA can obtain permission to offer subsidies to developers through tax-increment financing -- a special tax district in which the city, county and school district agree to collect about 65 percent of taxes owed to them over 20 years. The tax-increment financing is necessary because the URA doesn't expect to receive more subsidies from the state's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, which has given $17.5 million to develop Summerset, said Tom Cummings, URA director of housing. In addition to the tax-increment financing, Cummings said the URA is loaning Summerset Land Development Associates, headed by North Shore-based The Rubinoff Company, $2 million at a 4 percent interest rate. Rubinoff will repay the URA -- and a separate loan from First Niagara Bank -- by selling the lots to home builders. The URA is responsible for preventing slag from leeching into Nine Mile Run, a stream that runs through the middle of the development.

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