Charter Homes expanding in Pittsburgh area as part of national growth plan

Charter has announced a new $200 million development called Hastings at the site of the former Mayview State Hospital in South Fayette Township, Allegheny County, the fourth housing project the company has started in the Pittsburgh region in the last year.

Hastings will follow the company’s suburban neighborhood development model called The Great American Neighborhood. The model blends different housing types with commercial sections, and incorporates open, green space and walking trails.

Charter sees the Pittsburgh area as a”springboard” for national growth of its suburban neighborhood model, said Rob Bowman, the company’s president. The company already has about 1,200 home sites underway in the region.

“It provides us a perfect opportunity to demonstrate how to deconstruct the traditional, one house per half acre, sterile development and replace it with timeless neighborhoods that have the same character as the region’s other great addresses,” he said, citing Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill, Sewickley and Shadyside neighborhoods.

Like Charter’s mixed-use projects in the midstate, including Walden and Arcona in Cumberland County, Hastings will feature a “crossroads” section, or commercial area, that will be home to local shops and sidewalks lined with trees.

In other Charter communities, the local businesses include craft breweries, boutiques, yoga and fitness studios, cafes, coffee houses and day care centers.

Hastings, which is surrounded by more than 500 acres of parkland, is expected to have 576 homes when it’s fully developed.

Charter’s plan will preserve many century-old trees and recycle an estimated 300,000 tons of demolition material that will be left over after taking down 40 buildings from the state hospital. The company will reuse the material in its infrastructure work for the new neighborhood.

The project is expected to generate about 1,300 jobs.

Learn more about Hastings in the video below.

Hastings Life A Walk Away from Charter Homes & Neighborhoods on Vimeo.