Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority board voted Thursday to prepare to borrow as much as $50 million to support Downtown development.

The URA board has to vote again before issuing bonds in a process called a Transit Revitalization Investment District (TRID). The borrowed money would be invested in infrastructure that would support major redevelopment, including “transit-supportive infrastructure,” according to a briefing provided by URA staff to the board.

The board voted last month on tentative boundaries for the TRID, penciling in the Golden Triangle as the area for the investment while Downtown, part of the North Shore and the Strip District serve as the sources of revenue to pay off debt. 

The TRID would not cut into property taxes paid currently to the city, Allegheny County and Pittsburgh Public Schools on existing buildings. But for development occurring in the future, 75% of the new tax revenue would be diverted into the TRID fund, for years or decades. Backed by that pledge, the URA could borrow money in the near term and spend it, then make the debt payments over time using the new tax revenue.

The URA has used TRID in its redevelopment of East Liberty and plans to use it in Manchester and Chateau, according to Tom Link, the agency’s chief development officer. The board asked no questions before unanimously formalizing the agency’s intent to borrow.

Latino advocacy organization to get new home

The URA board also voted unanimously to sell, for $1, a Beechview building to Casa San José, an advocacy organization for the area’s Latino community. Casa San José intends to renovate the building to host community support activities, education and social services programming.

The URA took over the building after it was owned by Bernardo Katz, a developer-turned-fugitive who bought numerous structures in the area, promising to invest with the help of URA funding. Katz absconded from the country, drawing federal charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy and leaving debt that tied up numerous commercial properties in Beechview. The URA allocated $1 million in federal COVID-related relief funds to stabilize the building.

Casa San José founder Sister Janice Vanderneck called the acquisition of the building “a dream come true for us” at a time when the Latino community is stressed by the federal crackdown on immigrants. 

“And right now the fear is so high that we ourselves aren’t even working physically in our space,” said Vanderneck. “But someday, hopefully sooner than later, we will be free to publicly announce who we are and where we are, and it will be in such an excellent location due to all of your help, and we are very grateful.”

Rich Lord is the managing editor at Pittsburgh’s Public Source and can be reached at rich@publicsource.org.

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Pittsburgh agency poised to borrow up to $50 million for Downtown improvements

by Rich Lord, Pittsburgh's Public Source
February 12, 2026

<h1>Pittsburgh agency poised to borrow up to $50 million for Downtown improvements</h1> <p class="byline">by Rich Lord, Pittsburgh's Public Source <br />February 12, 2026</p> <p>Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority board voted Thursday to prepare to borrow as much as $50 million to support Downtown development.</p> <p>The URA board has to vote again before issuing bonds in a process called a Transit Revitalization Investment District (TRID). The borrowed money would be invested in infrastructure that would support major redevelopment, including “transit-supportive infrastructure,” according to a briefing provided by URA staff to the board.</p> <p>The board voted last month on tentative boundaries for the TRID, penciling in the Golden Triangle as the area for the investment while Downtown, part of the North Shore and the Strip District serve as the sources of revenue to pay off debt.&nbsp;</p> <figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://www.publicsource.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Screenshot-2026-01-15-at-2.18.30-PM.png" alt="Map showing Pittsburgh’s Central Business District, North Shore, and Strip District with boundaries for the Proposed Downtown TRID, investment areas, and existing TIFs highlighted." class="wp-image-1328286" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Urban Redevelopment Authority staff secured board approval to work up a plan that would dedicate future increases in tax revenue from the North Shore, Downtown and the Strip District to support improvements in the Golden Triangle. (Courtesy of URA)</figcaption></figure> <p>The TRID would not cut into property taxes paid currently to the city, Allegheny County and Pittsburgh Public Schools on existing buildings. But for development occurring in the future, 75% of the new tax revenue would be diverted into the TRID fund, for years or decades. Backed by that pledge, the URA could borrow money in the near term and spend it, then make the debt payments over time using the new tax revenue.</p> <p>The URA has used TRID in its redevelopment of East Liberty and plans to use it in Manchester and Chateau, according to Tom Link, the agency’s chief development officer. The board asked no questions before unanimously formalizing the agency’s intent to borrow.</p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-latino-advocacy-organization-to-get-new-home">Latino advocacy organization to get new home</h2> <p>The URA board also voted unanimously to sell, for $1, a Beechview building to Casa San José, an advocacy organization for the area’s Latino community. Casa San José intends to renovate the building to host community support activities, education and social services programming.</p> <p>The URA took over the building after it was owned by Bernardo Katz, a developer-turned-fugitive who bought numerous structures in the area, promising to invest with the help of URA funding. Katz absconded from the country, drawing federal charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy and leaving debt that tied up numerous commercial properties in Beechview. The URA allocated $1 million in federal COVID-related relief funds to stabilize the building.</p> <p>Casa San José founder Sister Janice Vanderneck called the acquisition of the building “a dream come true for us” at a time when the Latino community is stressed by the federal crackdown on immigrants.&nbsp;</p> <p>“And right now the fear is so high that we ourselves aren’t even working physically in our space,” said Vanderneck. “But someday, hopefully sooner than later, we will be free to publicly announce who we are and where we are, and it will be in such an excellent location due to all of your help, and we are very grateful.”</p> <p><em>Rich Lord is the managing editor at Pittsburgh’s Public Source and can be reached at r<a href="mailto:ich@publicsource.org">ich@publicsource.org</a>.</em></p></p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org/ura-pittsburgh-downtown-investment-borrowing/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org&quot;&gt;Pittsburgh&#039;s Public Source&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.publicsource.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cropped-ps_circle_favicon_blue.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=1329417&amp;amp;ga4=G-CCLXQK5C14&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.publicsource.org/ura-pittsburgh-downtown-investment-borrowing/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/publicsource.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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