After an early afternoon meeting with 980 Liberty Partners principal Mathew Shollar, Heinz Endowments President and CEO Grant Oliphant told the New Pittsburgh Courier there is no compromise position to be taken between the two on the future of the August Wilson Center. He confirmed this position in a letter sent to Shollar immediately afterwards.
The tentatively approved 980 Partners’ bid for the bankrupt center would pay off mortgage holder Dollar Bank and unpaid contractors. The foundations’ lower bid would not, but they are backed by Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, state Attorney General Kathleen Kane and the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority.
“There’s been this notion out there that there’s a middle ground between our positions—there really isn’t,” he told the Courier. “They have an end goal to build a hotel. We have an end goal to preserve the August Wilson Center, not just a piece of it. And those goals lead in very different directions.”
The meeting took place just a month ahead of an Orphan’s Court trial on the validity of deed covenants the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority says prevent the 980 Partners from developing a hotel on the site. Should the restrictions be upheld, 980 Partners will pull out, and the bankrupt center will go up for sheriff’s sale Oct. 6.
Oliphant said he thought it was important that the two sides got together, but in the end they have totally divergent views.
“If the 980 plan goes forward, the August Wilson Center will occupy about 35 percent of its original footprint with access to the theater through the lobby for only a third of the year,” he said. “We think that is totally inadequate and we cannot support it in any way. This is a public asset with an important mission and shouldn’t be stripped down to the bare minimum.”
Oliphant reiterated that the foundations’ plan would preserve the AWC’s mission and the architecturally unique building. It would be run by two boards of directors; one focusing on managing the building, the other on programming. However, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust would initially handle bookings because, Oliphant said, “they know how to fill schedules and can provide a greater economic draw.”
“I think the structure we have design protects the most against failure scenarios. We think there is a much higher likelihood of success than last time where all those functions were co-mingled under a board that had experience in none of them,” he said. “In our plan the center will be debt free. I will not be a tenant, and will own its destiny.”
Oliphant also repeated that the foundations could support an air-rights only hotel project—one built entirely above the AWC without compromising the structure—but said Shollar told him 980 could not secure financing for an air-rights only development.
Shollar said three weeks ago that contrary to Oliphant’s characterization of the 980 plan would not “gut” the center nor “shove” into the hotel lobby. Nor would the hotel—which he noted was part of the original plan to provide a needed revenue stream for the center—deface the characteristic architecture.
“There are no exterior pillars of any kind, rather than relegating the symbolic sail to a ‘footnote,’ we have allocated significant funds to enhance the sail, build a new center marquee and install exterior digital signage that was part of the architect’s original but was omitted due to cost overruns,” he said. “Our plan calls for an elegant restrained tower that complements the existing structure, using under 50 percent of the available zoning allowance.”
As he did following the last hearing before Common Pleas Judge Lawrence O’Toole, Shollar said even if the URA’s alleged restrictions on building usage are valid, the 980 design conforms. His group merely seeks URA consent for the improvements.
“No differently than if this were the air-rights proposal made by the foundations,” he said.
The trial on the validity of the URA’s covenants is scheduled for Sept. 29. in O’Toole’s chambers, a week before the scheduled sheriff’s sale.
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