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Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh Issues $26.2 million Permit to Turn Downtown's Old Steam Plant Into 97 Apartments

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania issued a $26.2 million building permit on Oct. 22 to convert the Downtown steam plant at 120 Cecil Way, shut down in 2023, into 97 affordable apartments, part of a $76.9 million project.

By Morningline Research · November 4, 2026

For more than a hundred years, the plant at 120 Cecil Way pumped steam to heat the office towers of Downtown Pittsburgh. Now it's being turned into 97 affordable apartments. On Oct. 22 the city issued a building permit for the conversion with a reported value of $26.2 million.

The permit's wording is plain: "renovations for a change of use from existing boiler plant to apartments." Outside, it adds new sidewalks, two parking spaces and a landscaped playground.

Three years from shutdown to permit

Timeline of 120 Cecil Way in Pittsburgh, from the steam plant's 2023 shutdown to the October 2026 building permit
Graphic: Morningline Research, from City of Pittsburgh permit records and the reporting linked in this story.

The plant sits near the Roberto Clemente Bridge on the Allegheny River. It once ran the steam operations of Pittsburgh Allegheny County Thermal, which heated much of Downtown, PublicSource reported. The plant was decommissioned in July 2023, according to a city notice filed this spring.

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Boston-based Beacon Communities is the developer, working with the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh. The plans turn the complex into a 12-story apartment building with every unit affordable. The existing smokestack stays, the Post-Gazette reported.

The money came together over the past year. In September 2025 the Urban Redevelopment Authority approved a $5 million loan, WESA reported. In February the housing authority's board added $1.85 million, bringing its stake to $4.9 million and citing higher construction costs and interest rates, according to PublicSource.

A $76.9 million project

The city's April notice to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development puts the total estimated cost at $76.9 million. Federal low-income housing tax credits bring in about $34.7 million of it. Historic tax credits add another $10.5 million.

That's a different measure from the permit. The $26.2 million is the value reported on the building permit, not a contract amount. The $76.9 million covers the whole development.

The building will hold 7 studios, 12 one-bedrooms, 47 two-bedrooms and 31 three-bedrooms, the notice says. Forty-nine units will carry project-based vouchers and are set aside for single parents working toward a college degree, the housing authority said. Pittsburgh Scholar House will run child care, counseling and career services on site.

The other 48 units are for households earning from 20% to 80% of the area median income. "This is a catalytic project for Downtown conversion," JW Kim, the housing authority's chief development officer, told PublicSource.

The sources round things a little differently. CBS Pittsburgh described the plant as about 100 units, while the city, the housing authority and the URA all say 97. The permit lists the address as 120 Cecil Place. Most of the coverage calls it Cecil Way.

Downtown's push to fill old buildings with homes

The yellow Roberto Clemente Bridge in Pittsburgh on a day when it was closed to cars
The Roberto Clemente Bridge in Pittsburgh on a day when it was closed to cars. Photo: Cbaile19, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).

Cecil Way is one of several conversions under a 10-year, $600 million plan to remake Downtown, announced in fall 2024. The same URA vote that funded it put $11.6 million into three projects with 217 units, 154 of them affordable, according to WESA.

On Sept. 23 the housing authority held a "Celebration of Progress" at the plant. That day city and county leaders marked progress on it and two other Downtown buildings, the May Building on Fifth Avenue and Tessera on Liberty Avenue. Together they'll add 233 apartments, CBS Pittsburgh reported. "Now you can raise a family in downtown," Mayor Corey O'Connor said.

Nationally, tax-credit housing got some help this week. On Monday HUD opened an "express lane" for FHA-insured construction loans on tax-credit apartment projects, aiming to underwrite and close in 30 days, Construction Dive reported.

Back at the river, the permit clears the way for the work inside the old plant. Construction is expected to wrap up by summer 2028, according to WESA.

How we count

The permit comes from the City of Pittsburgh's building permit records for 120 Cecil Place, issued Oct. 22, 2026. The value is the one reported on the permit. Project details and the names of the groups behind it come from the reporting linked here.

See Pittsburgh's latest permit numbers, updated weekly.

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Sources

More from Morningline Research

More numbers: Pittsburgh, PA building permit activity, updated weekly.