Click the listen button above to hear a conversation between WESA reporter Kate Giammarise and news director Christopher Ayers.
Walking into the lobby of The Albion Lawrenceville sort of feels like walking into the lobby of a fancy hotel. There are exposed brick walls and high ceilings. Light streams in through the enormous windows. There are large pieces of artwork, and a desk with brochures touting the neighborhood’s many bars, restaurants, and high-end amenities.
But there’s something unique about this new luxury apartment building in Upper Lawrenceville.
Because of a special zoning designation in Lawrenceville and a few other city neighborhoods, 10% of the building’s apartments — 27 units — are set aside as affordable, with more modest rents.
“I’m very grateful,” said Janine Rainaldi, who works as a waitress and recently moved into one of the building’s affordable apartments.
Rainaldi, 54, knows she would not have been able to afford to live there if not for the specially-designated units. She had lived in Lawrenceville for more than a decade before moving to Sharpsburg for several years before coming back to the neighborhood.
“I kept looking and looking for places that took low-income [housing vouchers], but it’s kinda hard to find,” she said.
Rainaldi said she knows some people who need affordable housing are unfairly stereotyped.
“ No. We are workers. We’re just trying to get by,” she said.
Rainaldi is exactly the kind of person the housing is meant to assist, advocates for inclusionary zoning policies said.
Lawrenceville has had an inclusionary zoning policy — which requires large new developments to set aside a portion of apartments as affordable — since 2019. Pittsburgh city officials spent much of last year discussing and debating whether that mandatory policy should expand citywide. Supporters said it would provide much-needed affordable housing. Opponents said it would be too costly for developers and ultimately hurt overall housing affordability because fewer market-rate apartments would get built.
Council narrowly passed a bill last fall that would offer voluntary tax incentives for developers who choose to build affordable units, rather than a mandatory program. That bill is before the city Planning Commission.
All the apartments in The Albion — market rate or affordable — are built to the same quality standard, said Chicago-based developer Andrew Yule.
The $100 million development also boasts a fitness center, sauna, rooftop terrace, and other amenities. Rents for market-rate apartments range from about $1,500 a month to the “lower four thousands.”
Other residents in the building’s inclusionary units, including Teheira Smith, 41, also previously lived in Lawrenceville before being priced out as rental costs in the neighborhood climbed. She moved to Homewood for several years with her teen daughters, but with worries about crime in that neighborhood, is happy to be back.
“It is somewhere where, you know, you wanna raise your family and overall I really do love it here. I’ve been here for 13 years and I’m just glad to have the opportunity to be back,” Smith said.
Rainaldi, Smith, and other residents of the affordable units completed an extensive application and were selected through a lottery, as there were more applicants than the 27 apartments available.
Resident Beth Fagan, 67, had not previously lived in Lawrenceville. Before moving into The Albion, she had been struggling to find a place for her and her adult son, who has autism. Fagan uses a cane to walk, and has difficulty with stairs — a common feature in many Pittsburgh neighborhoods and homes.
“I don’t think there’s a ton of places that have the things that I needed and the things [he] needed. It was difficult,” she said.
“For me personally, I worked most of my life,” Fagan said. “But that doesn’t negate the fact that sometimes people need a [hand] up and rents are just so incredibly high right now.”
Residents of the affordable apartments must have an income that is at or below 50% of the area median income — roughly $37,600 annually for a household of one, or about $43,000 for a household of two.
Dave Breingan, co-director of community organization Lawrenceville Together, said he’s thrilled the apartments have welcomed back people who were priced out of the neighborhood, along with single moms, people with disabilities, Black residents, people who work in the neighborhood and others.
“A lot of the conversation around IZ has been very focused on the policy details and … the political fights around it. But, for us as a community, this project and these 27 units is really the realization of a neighborhood ethos of welcoming housing for everyone,” said Breingan.
Lawrenceville Together, along with the Fair Housing Partnership of Greater Pittsburgh handled the outreach and marketing for the affordable units.
“I can’t think of another building in Pittsburgh that has this much socioeconomic diversity in one building,” said Fair Housing Partnership Executive Director Megan Hammond .
Officials and residents will celebrate the building’s opening at a ceremony on Wednesday.
