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Old 04-11-2018, 08:00 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA (Morningside)
14,360 posts, read 16,870,700 times
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For the last few years, it seems like our construction boom has been dominated by hotels and apartment buildings. However, more recently it seems like there are an increasing number of office projects coming on the market. Off the top of my head:

1. The office component of Three Crossings continues to be built out, with the final portion of Phase 1 under construction now.
2. Buncher's first new office building in the Strip, District 15, will begin construction soon.
3. In Lawrenceville, construction will begin soon on an office building next to Foundry @ 41st.
4. The replacement to Penn Plaza will now be entirely office space/retail, with no residential component.
5. Bakery Square 3.0 - the final building in the complex - will not only be an office building, but nine stories - making it three stories taller than the first new-construction office building there.
6. There are now two projects in the pike for Pittsburgh Technology Center - the new Burns-Scallo building (156,000 square feet) right along the riverfront, and a 126,000 square foot project by Elmhurst along Second Avenue which was just announced (URA will be moving towards sale this week).
7. Within the core of Oakland, there are several major projects underway by Walnut Capital. First the conversion of the Pittsburgh Athletic Association into offices. They are also converting the old car dealership at Craft Place into office space. They plan to build a new 8-10 story midrise right next to Skyvue as well. They also have longer-term plans for a "Bakery Square like" complex on McKee where the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh used to be located.
8. There are other developers besides Walnut Capital. An eight-story midrise is going in at the corner of McKee and Coltart on a parking lot. The developer appears to have plans to build a second phase right across Coltart replacing another parking lot and a CVS. I've heard about an additional project in North Oakland as well, but nothing confirmed.
9. Construction is underway on the first office space at the Almono site.
10. Of course there are also the various expansion projects by the universities and the hospitals, which include an office component.

All of this seems like it is happening at a welcome time. The hotel market has reached saturation in Pittsburgh after a strong boom period, with it unlikely many more will be built in the next few years. And while there are more residential units coming down the pike already in development, the softening of rents at all but the newest-construction complexes means we'd (all things considered) be due for a bit of a slowdown here. But with this much office construction, developers must be feeling bullish about job growth within the city, which could help give local residential demand another shot in the arm.

It's unlikely, but I do kind of hope we get one more decent tower downtown out of this too. Downtown construction is picking up, but it's almost entirely apartments and condos right now. We still do have a few prominent spots though - like the lot on Grant Street or the one on Boulevard of the Allies - where a highrise could be built without knocking something else down.
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Old 04-11-2018, 08:14 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh
6,782 posts, read 9,524,759 times
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Originally Posted by eschaton View Post
8. There are other developers besides Walnut Capital. An eight-story midrise is going in at the corner of McKee and Coltart on a parking lot. The developer appears to have plans to build a second phase right across Coltart replacing another parking lot and a CVS.
Thanks. I'd wondered what was going on there. That's a really deep hole they've got now.

In Oakland at least, I think some of this new space is needed just to replace some older buildings that, while usable, rent for way too much.
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Old 04-11-2018, 08:18 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA (Morningside)
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Originally Posted by Moby Hick View Post
In Oakland at least, I think some of this new space is needed just to replace some older buildings that, while usable, rent for way too much.
Oakland only has 2.4% vacancy for class A office space right now. It's even tighter than Downtown!

Given all of the projects (not just offices, also residential) in the pike, Forbes might have something close to a complete urban street wall from the Carnegie Museum down to Magee within another decade.
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Old 04-11-2018, 08:24 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh
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Originally Posted by eschaton View Post
Oakland only has 2.4% vacancy for class A office space right now. It's even tighter than Downtown!
Yes. I think my office is class D and that this won't change until new construction can drive down rents.
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Old 04-11-2018, 08:29 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA (Morningside)
14,360 posts, read 16,870,700 times
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Originally Posted by Moby Hick View Post
Yes. I think my office is class D and that this won't change until new construction can drive down rents.
It's kind of surprising that the Parking Authority only has one garage in Oakland actually, given the huge demand for parking in the neighborhood. It's probably too expensive now for the Authority to acquire the land needed to build one however.
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Old 04-11-2018, 09:45 AM
 
Location: East End, Pittsburgh
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Walnut Capital seems to be taking on a lot at once.

Is the Bakery Square building the last piece of that project as originally conceived? Or do they plan to extend further into Larimer onto Hamilton?
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Old 04-11-2018, 09:52 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA (Morningside)
14,360 posts, read 16,870,700 times
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Originally Posted by xdv8 View Post
Is the Bakery Square building the last piece of that project as originally conceived? Or do they plan to extend further into Larimer onto Hamilton?
Technically, it's not the last bit, because they have plans for a second, much larger parking garage which will provide parking for the new building. There are also more tenuous plans for a new busway stop at Bakery Square at the intersection with Putnam Street. IIRC the federal funding for this has already been appropriated and Walnut is looking for private funding to fill in the whole. Presumably if this busway stop goes in (which will involve a pedestrian bridge, making it easier to walk from Larimer to Bakery Square) Walnut Capital is going to continue to expand deeper into the neighborhood.
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Old 04-11-2018, 10:25 AM
 
3,589 posts, read 3,349,925 times
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Originally Posted by xdv8 View Post
Walnut Capital seems to be taking on a lot at once.

Is the Bakery Square building the last piece of that project as originally conceived? Or do they plan to extend further into Larimer onto Hamilton?
I heard they are done after the next building, I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to keep going.
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Old 04-11-2018, 10:31 AM
 
3,291 posts, read 2,739,702 times
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Originally Posted by eschaton View Post
Oakland only has 2.4% vacancy for class A office space right now. It's even tighter than Downtown!

Given all of the projects (not just offices, also residential) in the pike, Forbes might have something close to a complete urban street wall from the Carnegie Museum down to Magee within another decade.
This would be pretty cool, I already can't think of another US metro area that is roughly Pittsburgh's size, that has two dense urban areas matching downtown Pittsburgh and Oakland. If all of this fairly good infill is completed in a few years that will make it that much more unique.

The only other city/metro around the same size I can think of which might have two areas of that much urban space, is maybe St. Louis (downtown and Clayton). I've never been to Clayton but looking on streetview it seems quite a bit more spread out than Oakland, not really giving the same walkability and feel but looks more similar to something like Crystal City in Arlington VA. And the density drops waaaay off once you leave the perimeter. Although it does have a pretty good amount of midrises/highrises, but Oakland seems a lot more urban and vibrant to me.
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Old 04-11-2018, 10:45 AM
 
Location: East End, Pittsburgh
969 posts, read 763,837 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eschaton View Post
Technically, it's not the last bit, because they have plans for a second, much larger parking garage which will provide parking for the new building. There are also more tenuous plans for a new busway stop at Bakery Square at the intersection with Putnam Street. IIRC the federal funding for this has already been appropriated and Walnut is looking for private funding to fill in the whole. Presumably if this busway stop goes in (which will involve a pedestrian bridge, making it easier to walk from Larimer to Bakery Square) Walnut Capital is going to continue to expand deeper into the neighborhood.
I had heard about the busway stop and parking garage but they are really hard to envision. The PAT garage seems to make it difficult to really expand development in that direction in a unified way.
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