I had a rah-rah pro-Pittsburgh story in ENR magazine recently. I write this despite the fact that some of my fellow bloggers might consider such a piece to be un-American, if not at least anti-Pittsburgh.
But Pittsburgh needs all the good press it can get, and ENR, which is a weekly, is the best-known construction magazine in the nation.
The magazine is distributed to most of the construction, engineering and design frims in the U.S. I hooked up with ENR to begin with to cover the inquest into the convention center construction death of ironworker Paul Corsi Jr. Like that sad story, some Pittsburgh stories have no silver lining, so it's nice to do the positive ones on occassion.
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What is the office vacancy rate in PIT? I have search high and low, and I can not find it.
When Denver went through the oil price crash of the mid 80's, talk of "see thru" sky scrappers was in all the papers. People followed the vacancy rate number closer than the Dow.
Of course, this is different than our higher than national average abandoned building rate.
But by all means, build PNC Tower. I am sure ex-Mayor Murphy would approve.
Amos, according to the research I did the last two years, the overall vacancy rate for the office market in Pittsburgh was 21 percent in the first quarter of 2004 and 21 percent for the first quarter of 2005. I don't what the rate is now offhand (I couldn't immediately find it in my notes), but it's probably only a little bit better, if it's changed at all.
Oakland is always the hottest Pittsburgh submarket for office space. The downtown Central Business District submarket tends to have a higher vacancy rate than other Pittsburgh submarkets.
BTW, the PNC skyscraper was obviously a done deal... But that doesn't mean you shouldn't voice your opinion.
I'll post that current vacancy rate here later, if I can find it.
PNC Plaza can be built -- but it should not be subsidized. The $18-million TIF (tax break that takes money from the schools and local government) coupled with the $50-million state grant (no need to pay that back to the state of PA (my money too) is too much. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
As for vacancy rates, I think that the rates are done according to various ranges of buildings A+ spaces, etc.
When the numbers do NOT allow for the establishment to make its case, these numbers are nixed from the conversations. This is where we need the Fourth Estate is necessary.
Wake up watch dogs!
Hey Mark, as a blogger, you also are one of the watchdogs... So feel free to bark!
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