PITTSBURGH | Development Rundown II

[AFW523]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

A 1 million sqft warehouse is coming to Chapman Westport, a business park near the airport:

https://buildingpittsburgh.com/2016/07/20/could-it-be-amazon/

The speculation in that article is it could be Amazon, but in fact the end-user is currently unknown, and it was not revealed at the approval meeting that happened after that article:

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/BreakingNews.html?soid=1103850501792&aid=_7dTBOQAkIU

The site:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Westpo...af51289fb!8m2!3d40.4489036!4d-80.3092978

http://www.cbre.us/o/pittsburgh/properties/chapman-westport/Pages/overview.aspx

There is a comment below that Building Pittsburgh article that is pretty insightful and makes you wonder what possibilities may lie ahead.

20 years ago when CMU opened up the NREC building, it was a neat little narrative that a bunch of nerds under the 40th Street Bridge were building missile delivery mechanisms and ASIMO-like robots that Rocky got for his birthday in Rocky IV.

But now that the global economy has turned to automation as the next big venture in efficiencies and profit modeling, CMU's presence has really positioned Pittsburgh as a possible hub for robotics research and development, and all the spin off that comes from that.

If it is in fact Amazon and they are bringing in CMU on a joint venture to develop advanced warehouse robotics, that means we would eventually have the following portfolio:

-Amazon
-Uber
-Caterpillar, INC
-NREC / Dept of Defense and their trillion dollar budget
-Carnegie Robotics (NREC spin-off)
-Redzone Robotics

And I'm sure I'm forgetting some. Most of them are either new or only in the design stages, but as that astute post so eloquently put it "Because of CMU primarily, Pittsburgh is at or near the center of the innovation for automation right now. If this is Amazon, it’s probably not the last such center. It’s sort of like what happened when Whole Foods landed or Nordstrom’s. Those brands get the attention of every other similar brand. No one seemed to know there was so much money in Pittsburgh until there was a place to spend it."

Google and Apple and Oculus Rift and all of those are nice to have an ecosystem of IT synergies, but they also are fairly small potatoes as it relates to economic impact. 1,000,000 sq ft warehouses employing 1,000 people, many of whom are servicing the equipment and working on systems integration however? That'll move the needle. If I'm a public official anywhere in CMU's shadow, I'm actively seeking out any company or industry that would benefit from the oncoming automation wave that could potentially explode, and I'm building a portfolio that encourages follow through like Silicon Valley did when every company in the world needed to redesign their approach based on PC's and the dot com transformation.

[chris08876]

A nice driving tour of the downtown area and its proxies. I recommend HD and 1.5 or 2.0 speed. This way its 12 minutes versus 24 minutes and you cover more ground.

• Video Link

[mikebarbaro]

Good news on progress of the over 700 unit student housing in Oakland by Park7: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/...-university-of-pittsburgh-300307731.html

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by mikebarbaro

Good news on progress of the over 700 unit student housing in Oakland by Park7: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/...-university-of-pittsburgh-300307731.html

Over 700 beds. Around 300 units IIRC.

[speagles84]

Originally Posted by mikebarbaro

Good news on progress of the over 700 unit student housing in Oakland by Park7: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/...-university-of-pittsburgh-300307731.html

Originally Posted by eschaton

Over 700 beds. Around 300 units IIRC.

Great. So happy to see this project getting started; somewhat sad to see the old homes go though. Had a blast in college in the houses

[Austinlee]

Originally Posted by mikebarbaro

Good news on progress of the over 700 unit student housing in Oakland by Park7: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/...-university-of-pittsburgh-300307731.html

Looks like the project cost jumped up from $90m to $106m too.

[mikebarbaro]

This Triangle Business Times article interviews Ed Fritsch of Highwoods Properties. Supposed to have vague information about a new Pittsburgh project they have in mind. Could be large but I can't see past the paywall...

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog...e-tower-on-the-horizon-for-downtown.html

[eschaton]

It's behind a paywall I can't get to, but it looks like the acquisition of the Washington Eductation Center in Lawrenceville has been finalized. As has been stated before on this forum, it's scheduled to becoe a TRYP hotel (Wyndham brand). It will be a BFD for Lawrenceville, as the first hotel for the neighborhood, along with adding far more activity around the Butler/40th Street intersection. I think this will put more pressure on the developers of the Arsenal site to eventually redevelop the Rite Aid site as well. Hopefully the Wendy's will also go eventually, but I'm not holding my breath for that any time soon.

[lbh]

Originally Posted by mikebarbaro

Good news on progress of the over 700 unit student housing in Oakland by Park7: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/...-university-of-pittsburgh-300307731.html

http://devmap.io/developments/3407-forbes-ave

[photoLith]

The Washington education center is that huge Art Deco school next to the Wendy's right? If so that's going to be a massive hotel. Hope they don't tear down all the properties around it for parking. They already tore down that 1899 church next door a couple years ago.

[AaronPGH]

I will cry if that Wendy's goes away. Don't you touch her!

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by photoLith

The Washington education center is that huge Art Deco school next to the Wendy's right? If so that's going to be a massive hotel. Hope they don't tear down all the properties around it for parking. They already tore down that 1899 church next door a couple years ago.

IIRC, they're planning on having a valet lot some distance away. In addition, I think I saw something in the Arsenal site development saying that if a parking garage is built along 40th, a portion of it will be dedicated to the hotel. I could be misremembering though.

They don't actually own any of the other parcels on that block. Given it's split up among ten different owners, getting site control would be damn near impossible.

[haimon]

VIA Western Pennsylvanians for Passenger Rail:

SAVE THE DATE - August 23 PA House Transportation Committee Public Hearing in Pittsburgh
The PA House Transportation Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on Keystone West passenger train services improvements on Tuesday, August 23, 11:00 am at the City County Building, 414 Grant Street, in downtown Pittsburgh (15219). If your schedule allows, please plan to attend. It would be great to have you there in support of expanded and improved western PA passenger rail service. We will provide more information about the meeting as it is made available.
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/cteeInfo/index.cfm…
https://www.google.com/…/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x8834f15a…

[BrianTH]

NYT article on the ongoing trend of corporations moving HQs back into cities:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/busine...on&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

The article discusses at length how it is not an all-or-nothing thing, with companies splitting up the higher-end functions where they need to recruit more widely from the lower-end functions, moving the former into cities and leaving the latter in suburbs (or potentially other states or countries entirely).

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

NYT article on the ongoing trend of corporations moving HQs back into cities:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/busine...on&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

The article discusses at length how it is not an all-or-nothing thing, with companies splitting up the higher-end functions where they need to recruit more widely from the lower-end functions, moving the former into cities and leaving the latter in suburbs (or potentially other states or countries entirely).

Good news. Those office campus's in the suburbs are just sad. Devoid of life. I've had the misfortune of seeing a lot of them as well (job requires client visits), and there is something so fake about suburban office parks.

One thing though is space. That they offer a lot of, and it's relatively cheap per square foot. But still, it's not as dynamic as working in a big city. And it — when you want to get lunch. You just can't walk down the street. You have to drive 5 miles to get something.

So I welcome news like this. Places like Pittsburgh and many cities alike need to see more HQ's move into the core. Away from the cookie cutter campus's miles away.

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

NYT article on the ongoing trend of corporations moving HQs back into cities:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/busine...on&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

The article discusses at length how it is not an all-or-nothing thing, with companies splitting up the higher-end functions where they need to recruit more widely from the lower-end functions, moving the former into cities and leaving the latter in suburbs (or potentially other states or countries entirely).

Unless it was a heck of an opportunity, I would never take a job in the suburbs. It's not so much the length of the drive out there but the attitude and atmosphere of companies that locate in office parks. It's hard to think that a company that decides to locate in Warrendale is going to have much in the way of progressive ideas otherwise.

[highlander206]

Here's a short article about what is supposed to go into the old Del's space.

http://bloomfieldnow.org/restaurant-moving-former-dels/

This sounds like a good concept that should do very well, not too many smoked barbeque places in the area. Should be a nice net gain for the neighborhood.

[photoLith]

Sorry, this isnt really development related but I was downtown this evening and tonight shooting the Regatta and was walking around Markets Square when all the sudden about 1500 teens from rival high schools or some — amassed upon it. From about 6-11 they were running wild through downtown beating the — out of each other and random people. It was the most insane and idiotic thing Ive ever seen. The cops tried to be hands off but that didnt really work. And its ridiculous because there were so many people from out of town to see the fireworks tonight and the Regatta. Then they go downtown and see a veritable war zone and that doesnt make people from out of town feel very safe and gives a very bad rap for downtown Pittsburgh when its barely ever like that. Apparently someone got shot as well. They had to shut down a bunch of streets as the kids were just running around them beating each other up and I saw an elderly women get beat up for no reason. And apparently this happened Friday and Saturday night as well, and on the 4th of July when some people got shot.

Sorry for the crappy video quality, I didnt want to get too close and was kinda shaky as the cops had just pepper sprayed a bunch of people right behind me.
• Video Link

POT_0806 by photolitherland, on Flickr

POT_0831 by photolitherland, on Flickr

POT_0832 by photolitherland, on Flickr

[hammersklavier]

Originally Posted by haimon

VIA Western Pennsylvanians for Passenger Rail:

SAVE THE DATE - August 23 PA House Transportation Committee Public Hearing in Pittsburgh
The PA House Transportation Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on Keystone West passenger train services improvements on Tuesday, August 23, 11:00 am at the City County Building, 414 Grant Street, in downtown Pittsburgh (15219). If your schedule allows, please plan to attend. It would be great to have you there in support of expanded and improved western PA passenger rail service. We will provide more information about the meeting as it is made available.
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/cteeInfo/index.cfm…
https://www.google.com/…/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x8834f15a…

Cool. Can you keep those of us who live on the other side of the state apprised with what they're proposing?

[Minivan Werner]

Originally Posted by photoLith

Sorry, this isnt really development related but I was downtown this evening and tonight shooting the Regatta and was walking around Markets Square when all the sudden about 1500 teens from rival high schools or some — amassed upon it. From about 6-11 they were running wild through downtown beating the — out of each other and random people. It was the most insane and idiotic thing Ive ever seen. The cops tried to be hands off but that didnt really work. And its ridiculous because there were so many people from out of town to see the fireworks tonight and the Regatta. Then they go downtown and see a veritable war zone and that doesnt make people from out of town feel very safe and gives a very bad rap for downtown Pittsburgh when its barely ever like that. Apparently someone got shot as well. They had to shut down a bunch of streets as the kids were just running around them beating each other up and I saw an elderly women get beat up for no reason. And apparently this happened Friday and Saturday night as well, and on the 4th of July when some people got shot.

What the —.