Former Edgewater Steel site will be transformed into new riverfront neighborhood

OAKMONT, Pa. (March 3, 2010) – Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato and Edgewater Properties today celebrated the beginning of construction on the former Edgewater Steel site in Oakmont. The 34-acre brownfield will be transformed into a new traditional neighborhood along the Allegheny River with single-family homes, townhouses, parks, walkways, and tree-lined streets.

“Today, we celebrate another successful public-private partnership that will turn a dormant brownfield into a beautiful riverfront community with great amenities,” said Onorato. “When I became County Executive in 2004, my goal was to breathe new life into old industrial sites that had been sitting inactive and unproductive for decades. Six years later, we have reclaimed and redeveloped hundreds of acres of brownfields, returning them to active economic, residential, and recreational uses. These sites are back on the tax rolls, creating jobs and generating revenue. Allegheny County is proud to have played a role in making Edgewater at Oakmont a reality.”

The $15 million Edgewater community is a joint venture of Kacin Companies of Murrysville and EQA Landmark Communities of Pittsburgh. Edgewater is a Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND), a comprehensive planning approach that combines a variety of housing types and land uses, including public and private spaces. The development will include 240 for-sale energy-efficient homes and approximately 20,000 square feet of neighborhood retail and office space.

As part of its commitment to the community, Edgewater Properties is building baseball and soccer fields, as well as a riverfront park and walking trail, which will be dedicated as permanent public open space and deeded to Oakmont Borough.

“Edgewater will be one of the finest new neighborhoods in our region,” said Richard Kacin, president of Kacin Companies and managing partner of Edgewater. “Today is the culmination of years of hard work by countless individuals and organizations. In the truest sense, Edgewater is a private-public partnership. The project would not be possible without the leadership and support of Governor Ed Rendell, State Representative Frank Dermody, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, U.S. Congressman Jason Altmire, the Regional Industrial Development Corporation, and Oakmont Borough over years of planning, approval and financing.”

“There will be something for everyone at Edgewater,” said EQA Landmark Communities President Brett Malky. “We want to create Oakmont’s best new neighborhood. The best thing that will be said of this new neighborhood when it’s completed will be that it looks as if it has been here for years. The architecture of homes and buildings at Edgewater were developed with the intent of capturing the essence of existing Oakmont architecture whilst providing the latest energy efficiency and technological advances in housing in our nation.”

Home construction will begin later this summer with single-family and a mix of multi-family home options ranging from the $200,000s to $700,000. Construction will be overseen by the Kacin Companies, which will also build the single-family homes. Heartland Homes will build the townhomes in the Edgewater neighborhood. For information, visit www.liveatedgewater.com.

Funding for Edgewater includes: $7.7 million loan from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority; $4.5 million bank loan; $1.5 million loan from RIDC; $1 million EPA loan through the Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County; and $553,843 from A. Richard Kacin Inc.

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Kacin Companies is a multi-disciplined real estate firm headquartered in Murrysville that has been among the region’s leaders in residential and commercial construction and real estate development for nearly 50 years. For additional information, visit www.kacin.com/residential.

EQA Landmark Communities of Pittsburgh is a national real estate development firm that focuses on the redevelopment of existing urban and suburban infill sites, often brownfields, into environmentally conscious, high quality, affordable places to live, work, and play. For additional information, visit www.eqa-lc.com.

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