$50M grant to fund Bedford Dwellings redevelopment project in Hill District
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A $50 million federal grant will allow Pittsburgh officials to complete a major revitalization project in the city’s Hill District.
The neighborhood revitalization grant will be used to rehabilitate the Bedford Dwellings housing complex, create additional affordable housing and make other investments in the Hill District community, officials said.
Pittsburgh officials already are moving forward with the first phase of the Bedford Dwellings redevelopment project, which includes 123 housing units and comes with a $62.5 million price tag.
The initial portion of the project includes 90 affordable housing units to replace the units at the Somers Drive site at the current Bedford Dwellings, as well as 24 new market-rate units and nine extra affordable housing units. Plans for the Colwell Street site include public green space, a community room, offices and 76 parking spaces.
The federal grant will allow the project to expand into additional phases, which officials have said will include more than 800 housing units in the city’s Hill District.
It will replace all of the existing Bedford Dwellings units and create hundreds more housing units, officials have said. The plan is to tear down the existing Bedford Dwellings site once all of the residents have been moved to new housing and replace it with a new residential development.
“This is a meaningful step towards righting past wrongs of racist urban development decisions, chronic disinvestment and harmful policies,” U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, said in a statement. “This was the product of years of hard work and coordination between community groups, the city of Pittsburgh, development partners, local organizations, philanthropy and Allegheny County to put a winning proposal together.”
The project is being spearheaded by the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh-based Trek Development Group, with support from the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority and a host of other partners.
City Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle, D-Hill District, hhas estimated the total project will take about six years.
“Community leaders in the Hill District have been working tirelessly for years to reimagine Bedford Dwellings into a neighborhood anchor where residents can live, work and play in a vibrant and safe environment and, with this funding, they can make that vision a reality,” U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, said.
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Braddock, said the investment “will help create more affordable housing in Pittsburgh and improve the conditions of this complex and neighborhood.”