Cultural Trust puts RiverParc on hold

Backers say they are focusing on a smaller riverside plan.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A planned retail, residential and entertainment complex once touted as the biggest in downtown Pittsburgh has been suspended indefinitely because of the nation’s credit and mortgage crisis, planners said.

When the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust unveiled plans for its $460 million RiverParc in 2006, officials saw it as a way to attract and keep residents and businesses downtown.

It was to be a mixed-use, environmentally friendly arts and residential development with a 225-room hotel, park, performing arts stage, retail and eating space, and about 700 apartments, lofts and townhouses.

The project also was to include a riverfront park linking the complex to the Allegheny River.

Cultural Trust CEO Kevin McMahon said the arts group hasn’t given up on the plan, but is refocusing on smaller improvements and a new riverside park.

“We’re recognizing the ongoing turmoil in the national credit markets, and residential mortgage turmoil around the country has affected our ability at this time to come up with an economically feasible deal,” he said.

“When the credit markets rebound, that will allow us to move forward again,” McMahon said. “But we have to re-evaluate.”

The project’s lead developer, however, questioned whether the credit crisis had anything to do with the Cultural Trust’s decision.

“Pittsburgh hasn’t been hit in the housing sector like other parts of the country,” said Susan Eastridge, CEO and founder of Concord Eastridge Inc.

Eastridge said the Cultural Trust fumbled some crucial financial aspects of the project — getting planning funds and a $12.3 million grant. Eastridge said her company helped the Cultural Trust get a second $10.3 million grant, but that, too, was lost.

McMahon said the grants weren’t lost. The Cultural Trust let them lapse when it realized the project couldn’t meet its original timetable so the state money could be given to other groups, he said.

The project might be “too ambitious for [the trust] to undertake,” Eastridge said. “It’s really a sad day for Pittsburgh to lose such a really nice, really great project.”

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said he didn’t believe the Cultural Trust’s decision would hinder other development in the city.