Condos springing up Downtown are the cat's meow for those looking for pet-friendly city living.
Two that recently opened, and at least five of the seven condos under construction, allow residents to own pets.
"There's an attitude with our building that these are permanent homes, and they are meant to feel like a home as opposed to temporary living," said Kathy Wallace, sales coordinator for 941 Penn Avenue. "Pets are an important part of peoples' lives -- especially non-transient lives. We were assuming our buyers would have commitments like that."
Since the Encore on 7th high-rise in Downtown opened two years ago, the city has issued 117 new dog licenses in the Golden Triangle, according to its pet license department. The department could not say how many total licenses there are in the city.
But the number is likely to grow when more condos open.
Lorri Andria, sales manager for pet-friendly Piatt Place on Fifth Avenue, said 90 percent of prospective buyers who ask about an animal policy have pets.
Nannette Staropoli, 42, is living at the Encore on 7th until her condo at Piatt Place is completed. She said being able to bring her Chihuahua Bailey was a "very important criteria for me."
"I grew up in the country and always had animals, but I was a really busy career woman," Staropoli said. "My daughter decided she needed company and got a Chihuahua. Then she left for college, and I kept the dog."
Staropoli said she taught Bailey to use a litter box, so house training in a multi-story building wasn't much of a concern.
Marnie Monheim, 80, who has lived in Gateway Towers on Fort Duquesne Boulevard for 25 years, said her Chihuahua Casper has no trouble waiting out the elevator ride from her 26th-floor unit. But, just in case, she trained him using a puppy pad in the bathroom, she said.
Gateway Towers provides resident pet owners a grassy area outside equipped with a waste-disposal receptacle. New developments have planned similar outdoor areas.
Piatt Place will have an open-air courtyard that pets can use, Andrea said. And a condo development in the works at the former Otto Milk Co. in the Strip District will have a pet walking and cleaning area, Wallace said.
The prospect of pet accidents and a lack of walking and play areas are what prompted The Pennsylvanian, a rental unit near 11th Street and Liberty Avenue, to ban dogs, leasing consultant Bob Moslener said. Heinz Loft Apartments in the Strip District is a pet-free community for similar reasons.
"Pets tend to damage the property," property manager Chuck Wagner said. "And there are people who don't want to live around pets."
City officials say they don't anticipate problems Downtown from the increase in pets.
John Artman, supervisor of Pittsburgh Public Works' animal control division, said the department hasn't planned any initiatives to accommodate more animals.
But waste-disposal boxes, like that outside Gateway Towers, are scattered throughout the city.
For the 21 years Monheim worked in Harrisburg, she said she did just fine without a pet, but she wouldn't give up her Chihuahua now.
"If this building's policy changed so that they no longer allowed pets," she said, "I would be out of here."
Pet policies
New or planned condos Downtown impose a few restrictions on pet owners -- mainly, they limit the number of pets and their weights.
• The Carlyle, 4th and Wood streets
Weight: No restrictions on pets already owned, new pets less than 35 pounds
Limit: One dog or two cats
• Encore on 7th, 100 Seventh St.
Weight: Less than 80 pounds
Limit: Two
• Piatt Place, Fifth and Wood streets
Weight: Less than 75 pounds
Limit: Two pets, combined weight 75 pounds
• 941 Penn Avenue, Penn Avenue near Garrison Place
Weight: Combined weight 80 pounds
Limit: Two
• 151 First Side, 151 Fort Pitt Blvd.
Weight: Less than 30 pounds
Limit: One
• Otto Milk Co. building, 25th and Smallman streets
Weight: Less than 80 pounds
Limit: Two
• Gateway Towers, 320 Fort Duquesne Blvd.
Weight: Less than 25 pounds
Limit: Two
• Market Square Place, Fifth Avenue
Pets permitted, policy in development
Source: Tribune-Review research
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