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3500 Forbes Avenue (former Marathon gas station)

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About

Clark Street Holdings/CA Ventures, a nation-wide multi-family developer with particular expertise in off-campus student housing,  hopes to develop a mixed-use project on the site of the former Marathon Oil gas station at 3500 Forbes Avenue.

The development site is approximately 1.2 acres in size and is bounded by Semple St. Forbes Avenue and McKee Place.  The proposed building will be designed and constructed to meet LEED certification requirements and will be 102 feet tall, as permitted by the Zoning Code using the Code’s sustainable development bonus. Stormwater controls will include, among other things, a green roof design that will capture and use a significant amount of stormwater that would otherwise leave the site. 

The project will be marketed to young professionals, medical workers, students, and others looking for modern, well-appointed apartments in Central Oakland.  The building will provide office, retail, and amenity space along Forbes Avenue. The building will be designed and constructed with an integral parking garage for tenants and visitors.  There will be approximately 300 residential units on the site with a mix of studios, 1 bedroom, 2 bedrooms, and 3 bedroom units.   

Residential units with ground-floor entrances are planned along McKee Place. Importantly, the site plan for the building includes a twenty-foot wide publicly accessible pedestrian connection between Semple St. and McKee Place.

 

Updates

CA Ventures made a preliminary presentation at the virtual Oakland-Wide meeting on August 25, 2020. A subdivision of the site went to the City of Pittsburgh Planning Commission on November 24, 2020.

CA Ventures presented updates at the December 15, 2020 Oakland-Wide meeting and the January 26, 2021 City of Pittsburgh Planning Commission meeting. CA Ventures re-scheduled the project’s February 9 return to the Planning Commission for February 23, 2021. The commission issued a continuance for the project.

CA Ventures returned to the Planning Commission on March 23, 2021. The commission resumed the hearing for the proposed apartment building, which they continued earlier; testimony was closed and they did not hear a full presentation of the plans as this was done previously and was also provided to the commission in advance for their review.

The developer presented one image of a change to the rear of the property to address community concerns and concerns from the adjacent property owner, Family House. The revised design steps back the portion of the building at the rear of the property, reducing the height by two stories for part of the building at the Semple side. Representatives from CA Ventures and Family House stated that the two organizations reached an agreement on the project; the Planning Commission approved the project.

The site is currently under construction.

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