Pittsburgh January 2022 – Key Take-Aways
- Chip Desmone, Desmone Architects: Seeing a lot of light industrial, tech-flex projects, and apartment buildings with thousands of units.
- Tom Frank, Desmone Architects: South Side and the Strip District remain hot, with lots of new development.
- Jim Futrell, Allegheny Conference on Community Development: Continue to chug along at only a percentage of the 2019 level [of business]. Market forces are holding us back. Manufacturing and wholesale had declined even before the pandemic, and leisure, hospitality and services have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Seeing some recovery: The arts and entertainment sector has fully recovered. But food is being held back by workforce shortages, and accommodations is really struggling at about 60 percent of where they were two years ago. That’s driven by travel rebound.
In their annual tally of business expansions, in first nine months of the year, they’ve seen a big increase in manufacturing outlets, but less so in the financial business services sector. You see uncertainty about fully remote [business] and branch office operations. Conversely, distribution centers have made a big jump in the annual average from 2015 to 2019. Research and development also had a small increase, and manufacturing represented a good percentage of announcements. Hopefully, we’ll see a good 2022. - Kim Harkobusic, Liberty Insurance Agency: Specializes in commercial business insurance, general liability and workers comp. The mantra is “insurance isn’t a problem until It’s a problem.” Trending now, we see that property replacement values have changed, with the cost of building today versus older properties. Encourages everyone to take a look at your buildings and values and if it’s not $225 or $250 per square foot, you might be under-covered.
- Pam Austin, Burns Scalo Real Estate: Has been working on the Riviera at PTC [an upcoming six-story Class A office building]. Still seeing lots of development in the Strip area, with the Produce Terminal, eating and drinking and entertainment venues.
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