Pittsburgh puts early end to $1.8M annual tax break for Squirrel Hill property

A blighted piece of land in the city’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood will return to the tax rolls nearly a decade earlier than expected.

The property, an old slag heap that overlooks the Parkway East near the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, had a 20-year tax break to spur development.

But that will now end in 2025 after a unanimous City Council vote Tuesday.

The three taxing bodies — Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Public Schools and Allegheny County — will see a total estimated $1.8 million in property tax revenue each year now that the tax break is ending.

Of that, Pittsburgh is expected to get about $630,000 each year.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority in 2013 asked the taxing bodies to agree to a $24 million tax deal with a developer looking to build more than 700 homes on the site.

Under the tax-increment financing arrangement, money that would otherwise be paid in property taxes would instead help fund the development project for 20 years.

The final phase of the project, however, was scrapped because necessary infrastructure at the site was too expensive.

“It was determined to be infeasible,” said David Geiger, the authority’s director of government and strategic affairs.

The site now is set to become a 15-acre solar farm. An additional 55 acres of the land will become an expansion of Frick Park.

The project will receive the money that had been set aside from the tax diversion program. It is unclear how much that would be.

The remediation and revitalization effort will receive a $2 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and $4 million in covid-19 relief funds from the city.

Geiger said work at the site is expected to start next year.