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Pittsburgh closing in on acquisition of former VA hospital in Highland Park

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - 7/14/2020

Jul. 14--Pittsburgh is on the verge of finally securing ownership of a former Veterans Affairs hospital complex in Lincoln-Lemington with plans to create a public safety training facility for police, firefighters and paramedics that would be open to other departments in the region.

City Council on Tuesday introduced a resolution that would authorize acquisition of the 168-acre property on Highland Drive.

Dan Gilman, Mayor Bill Peduto's chief of staff, said the city expects to close on the $1 sale in August while council is on its annual summer break. He said development of the property for city purposes would occur in phases and take years to complete. Peduto has estimated it would cost more than $100 million.

"This plan would allow us to move police training and police headquarters from rented spaces on the North Side and Washington Boulevard to the VA site, saving the city over $1 million a year, which we can reinvest in our communities," Gilman said. "We want this facility to be a place where all of public safety can come to train, not only our public safety personnel, but those from around the region, and hopefully save all of these municipal departments money so those dollars can be reinvested back into their communities."

Federal regulations require the property to be used only for public safety and emergency response.

The federal government last year approved Pittsburgh's request to acquire the property through a "public benefit conveyance" at no cost to the city. The VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System closed the complex in 2013 and shifted medical services to the University Drive campus in Oakland and the H. John Heinz III Medical Center facility in O'Hara.

Gilman said the project would allow the city to move public safety facilities off Washington Boulevard and install green infrastructure to alleviate annual flooding of the street. The boulevard was the scene of fatal drownings in 2011 after cars became trapped in flash flood waters.

City officials also plan to move the Department of Public Works Heavy Equipment Division from valuable real estate along the Allegheny River in the Strip District and the Emergency Medical Services headquarters in Shadyside to the campus. Gilman said the city intends to sell those properties.

"That both saves us money on the maintenance costs of older building and the value of the sale," he said.

The hospital opened in 1953 as a neuropsychiatric facility for treating World War II veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Officials said said one of the buildings served as a pharmaceutical laboratory for the development of drugs used to treat PTSD.

Bob Bauder is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Bob at 412-564-3080, bbauder@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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