Phipps says it's interested in buying Irish Centre as zoning board considers apartment proposal

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- There's a new development in the effort to construct a 160-unit, eight-story apartment building on the current site of the Irish Centre in Squirrel Hill. 

As KDKA money editor Jon Delano reports, the Phipps Conservatory says it's interested in purchasing the property as a base of operation for a vegetable garden program.

In a letter to the Pittsburgh Zoning Board of Adjustment on Friday, the chair of the Phipps Conservatory said Phipps was interested in buying the Irish Centre. Erica Cochran Hameen, the chair of the board of trustees, said, "Phipps would use the property as the headquarters for its Homegrown program. The Homegrown program improves the overall health of families and children in underserved neighborhoods by providing fresh produce and installing raised-bed vegetable gardens at households." 

"It would actually fit within the zoning requirements and would be a welcome neighbor to us," said Victoria Yann of Frick Park Friends. 

The plan was immediately hailed by Frick Park Friends, a community group organized to oppose Craft Development's proposed apartment building on the site, which is surrounded by Frick Park and would require several zoning variances to be built, unlike the Phipps' plan. 

"We feel that it would be a great neighbor, and the impact to Frick Park would be negligible, if at all," Yann said. 

But in a telephone conversation with KDKA-TV, Craft's attorney Ray Baum said it's rather late for Phipps to enter the picture, noting, "Craft has an agreement of sale on the property.  The Irish Centre is not in a position to sell the property to anyone else, and Phipps, as far as I know, has not made an offer to buy." 

And Baum suggested an ulterior motive for the late Phipps offer, saying, "The CEO of Phipps has been strongly against this project from the beginning.  He lives about three-quarters of a mile from this project. "  

Nobody from Phipps was available to respond, but Frick Park Friends says 3,000 people have signed petitions against the apartment complex.

"The massive size of it is going to forever alter the character of that area," Yann said. 

The zoning board is expected to rule on the requested variances to build the apartment later this fall, only if they reject the variances and Craft's deal with the Irish Centre falls through will another buyer like Phipps have the chance to negotiate for something else.