And we’re glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife
Glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife
C’mon! Hold on tight!
C’mon! Hold on tight!

Though it’s cold and lonely in the deep dark night
I can see paradise [peak] by the dashboard light

Meatloaf notwithstanding, let’s take a look at another project that’s currently getting rolling in the Paradise Hills/RAH/Allegheny West neighborhood. A few months back, we told you about, Zero Six, a half a dozen for-sale new construction homes coming soon to the corner of 34th & Lippincott, just south of Allegheny Avenue. This project, from Argo Property Group and with design work from Bright Common, will be a massive upgrade over a one-story commercial building that previously stood at this location and we look forward to seeing it rise. But Zero Six isn’t the only Argo project around here, as this developer is also working on an even larger project called Paradise Peak just a couple blocks away.

This project will occur at 3430 W. Westmoreland Ave., which sits just north of Allegheny. The parcel has been used as a surface parking lot for the last twenty plus years, and before that it was actually contiguous with 3451 W. Allegheny Ave., located immediately next door. Decades ago, an industrial building was located on this entire property which was utilized by a dairy concern that went by the name of Wawa. They’re apparently still around, maybe you’ve heard of them. In the years that followed, the building was used for the storage and manufacture of ladies garments, a lumber warehouse, and an auto parts warehouse. In the late 1990s, a plumbing supply business chopped off the rear section of the building to create a parking lot. Within a few years, a dental lab opened in what’s left of the old building, and it’s still operating there to this day.

The parking lot, however, is gone, and it’s now an active construction site. Take a look.

On the site of the former surface lot, Argo is developing a 24-unit development which will entail two rows of side-by-side duplexes, with a drive aisle in the middle. Each unit will include about 2,000 sqft of living space, with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, and one-car parking. The first units are scheduled to be delivered next year, and two of them are already under agreement at a $450K list price. Here’s a rendering and a site plan, to give you a better sense of what’s to come:

Between this project and Zero Six, this developer is poised to add 30 new units to a growing part of the city that sits just on the edge of East Falls. And Argo has at least one more iron in the fire around here, which will add almost two dozen more units to the neighborhood, but that’s a story for another day. More significant than all three of these projects combined is the huge development that’s been in the works near here for a few years, at 34th & Commissioner. While that project has thus far brought eight quadplexes to the area, plans call for a couple hundred more. Ain’t no doubt about it, the neighborhood will be doubly blessed, at the very least, to see that project lurch forward at last.