Mere months after rebuilding his health following a stroke, Rev. Jason Barr is now working to rebuild the health of the Hill District by providing new housing.

In conjunction with the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh and Jaxon Development, Barr’s Macedonia Baptist Church has broken ground on an $8 million, 32-home, mixed income development called Wylie Homes. The first four homes are to be completed by spring.

DIGGING IN—From left: Macedonia board member Richard Taylor, URA’s Jessica Smith Perry, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Pastor Jason Barr, PHFA Director Brian Hudson, Jaxon Development’s Jack Johnson and Dollar Bank’s Mona N. Generett break ground for new homes in the Hill District.

Barr said the project has been in development for about seven years, and became more crystallized after the church put its own money and sweat equity into a two-unit, low-income project about five years ago.

“After that, we came to understand that we couldn’t make the kind of impact we desired by building low-income housing,” he said. “So, we began to look at doing a market-rate project as a means to build up the socioeconomic status of the community.”

The five-phase development plan calls for a mixture of new and rehabilitated, in-fill housing to reinvigorate the Wylie Avenue corridor of the Middle Hill by creating a range of new homeownership opportunities while eliminating vacant lots and other sources of visible blight.

“The Hope VI Bedford Plan still developing properties up here around the church,” Barr said. “But where we’re building, mostly along Wylie, there was no programming or funds for development.”

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who joined the groundbreaking ceremony, said the project, along with plans for a new grocery, a new YMCA and the Penguins multi-purpose arena, would be integral to restoring the vitality of the Hill District.

The plan envisions associated neighborhood improvement activities including neighborhood clean-up, street tree planting and a provision of new green space. The groundbreaking for the first four mixed-income, for-sale units took place at the corner of Wylie Avenue and Chauncey Street. This phase is budgeted at $1.1 million with construction and mortgage financing provided by the URA, the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency and Dollar Bank.

Barr said the bulk of the development would take place on property Macedonia already owns in the Middle Hill, although the URA may acquire some additional lots for the project at a later date.

In addition to construction financing, Jessica Smith Perry, URA development programs manager, said the authority would provide deferred second mortgages to homeowners based on income. The new homes will range in price from $131,000 for three-bedroom units, to $179,000 for four-bedroom units.

Perry said only a few of the development’s homes will be rehabs—and because each one will be different, she has no pricing estimates.

(Send comments to cmorrow@newpittsburghcourier.com.)