The Pittsburgh Steelers won the right Wednesday to buy two prime spots on the North Shore despite objections from North Siders and the city Stadium Authority's chairwoman.
During a tense 2.5-hour hearing, the four-member authority twice voted 3-1 to sell its land near PNC Park and Heinz Field to the football team, which plans to turn one plot into a Hyatt Place hotel and the other into a $10 million, 2,600-seat entertainment venue.
The lone objector was Chairwoman Debbie Lestitian. She said the authority failed taxpayers because it did not negotiate the highest possible price for the real estate. Voting in favor were state Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Hill District, lobbyist Bob Ewanco and former Mayor Sophie Masloff.
"I think this board has a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers to put these projects out to bid to get the price that we can, and the best development we can for the land," Lestitian said. "Pittsburgh is a distressed city, and we're giving away our prime riverfront property."
Lestitian also argued it is illegal to sell the land to the Steelers because the team's developer, Continental Real Estate Cos., failed to develop North Shore land quickly enough to comply with a 2003 land "option agreement," which she believes has expired.
Continental and others dispute that. Ewanco said the point of selling the land to the Steelers was not to draw a high price, but to ensure that acres of parking lots between the venues are turned into developments that are tax-revenue engines for the city.
The two-part land deal breaks down this way:
• The Steelers will pay the Stadium Authority $1.32 million for 3.5 acres of land near PNC Park, where construction on a 178-room Hyatt Place hotel must begin by the end of the year.
The team must also give the authority $668,000 in parking revenues; in exchange, the team and developer won't be required to develop another North Shore parcel until 2010.
• A separate, 3.9-acre parcel known as "Lot 6" will be sold to the Steelers for $1.38 million. The deal requires the team to use the site as some type of entertainment venue for at least 10 years, and prohibits it from being sold for the same span of time.
If the terms of the sales are violated, the land automatically reverts back to the Stadium Authority's control.
Lestitian noted that land recently sold on the North Shore to Kratsa Development for a Holiday Inn was sold for $75.82 a square foot, which she said is nine times the amount per square foot for which the two parcels are being sold to the Steelers.
Marc Hart, the Steelers' business director, praised the Stadium Authority's decision.
"We're very excited. We've got a great project, this is great for the North Shore. The hotel and the theater -- this continues the progress," Hart said.
Throughout the meeting, members of the labor union-supported group Northside United chanted slogans against the sale.
Several said the Steelers and Continental were ignoring demands for a community benefits agreement -- a contract that would guarantee jobs, fair wages and social services for impoverished sections of the North Side.
"This land is our land; it's not yours!" the group of about 25 people chanted before and during the meeting. "We're fired up. (We) won't take it no more."
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