Friendship Development Associates (FDA) is marking its 20th year of neighborhood revitalization this weekend with its
birthday celebration.
"We're a real estate nonprofit community development organization," says Sarah DiLeo with FDA. "We do the things that private developers don't want to touch. We change markets."
Over the past 20 years, FDA has leveraged more than $15 million in private homeowner investment, and has been instrumental in the success of the URA's Housing Recovery Program. FDA has constructed 142 housing units, ranging from very low to moderate-targeted categories, and has renovated and/or developed 68,000 square-feet of commercial space.
Among FDA's biggest triumphs is the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative, which was formed in 1998 with Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation.
"In the late '90s we came to the realization that the future of the neighborhood rests along Penn Avenue," says DiLeo. "Spinning Plate Artist Lofts in East Liberty was one of first artist incubator spaces in the East End. Huge amount of artists wanted to be there, but there wasn't enough space for them. The idea was that if we have all these vacant buildings along the Avenue, maybe we could use them to help revitalize the neighborhood. We started by acquiring 16 buildings, and sold those to artists who converted them to live/work spaces."
Since the initiative's creation, the vacancy rate along the Penn Avenue Arts corridor has dropped from 78 percent to 21.1 percent, and the group has attracted nearly $56.5 million in investment along the Avenue, and converted nearly 150,000 square-feet of vacant property into artist live/work space.
Upcoming FDA projects include: the Glass Lofts, the second phase of a 3.2-acre development; townhouse construction at 5416-22 Penn Ave.; still in-development plans for 4800 Penn Ave.; and addressing the blighted buildings near the Bride Mural at 5439-5441 Penn Ave. with a committee of stakeholders and Penn Avenue-based architects Loysen + Kreuthmeier.
The FDA 20th birthday celebration is 6 to 9 p.m. on Fri, Oct. 2 at the Glass Lofts construction site on the corner of Penn Avenue and N. Fairmount Street. The event is part of the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative's monthly art crawl, Unblurred.
FDA is supported by Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, URA, Advisory Commission on Community Based Organizations and Pittsburgh City Council.
Writer: Caralyn Green
Source: Sarah DiLeo, Friendship Development Associates
Photograph courtesy of Friendship Development Associates