14C — February 14 - 27, 2014 — Pennsylvania — Mid Atlantic Real Estate Journal
www.marejournal.com
Western PA
By Louis Oliva, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank 4Q13: Pittsburgh industrial market turning the corner
T he fourth quarter of 2013 maintained the slow rate of growth
negative impact of the threat- ened government shutdown and debt ceiling deadline and the year-end budget deal nego- tiated by Congress should help the economy get off to a faster start in 2014. With increasingly favorable employment data throughout the fourth quarter and the expected tapering by the Federal Reserve Bank to be- gin in 2014, there are signs that the economy is in fact ready to expand at a slightly higher rate in 2014 than in 2013. There were several signifi- cant transactions completed in the quarter as well as a few no-
table expansion plans by local companies. The most notable was the groundbreaking by Industrial Scientific on a new 200,000 s/f headquarters and manufacturing facility situ- ated on 36 acres in Robinson Township in the West submar- ket. The site is adjacent to the Bayer Campus at the Ridge Road Exit off I-376. Also in the West submar- ket, CSX announced plans to construct a $50 million multi- modal facility on 70 acres in Stowe Township that will transfer cargo containers from rail cars to trucks. This project
should result in additional light industrial and warehouse distribution space in the im- mediate area including a barge off- loading facility. In the RIDC Industrial Park in O’Hara Township in the Northeast submarket, TruFood Manufacturing announced plans to occupy a 155,000 s/f light manufacturing facility to accommodate its continued growth. While the transaction did not result in net absorp- tion as the existing facility was never vacated by the former owner, it was a very positive sign to find a replacement oc-
cupier before a formal plant closing was announced. In a similar situation, the an- nounced closure of the 227,000 s/f Flabeg Solar facility in Clinton Commerce Park may have a new occupier in 2014. While the assets of Flabeg were liquidated in December, it is expected that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will be relocating its printing operations to the facility upon completion of re- quired renovations. Again, the market may have been able to avoid a significant vacancy in one of the submarket’s largest class A facilities. Given the lack of both class A space for lease and for sale inventory in general, one has to expect that new industrial property construction activity will finally commence in 2014. Louis Oliva, SIOR, CCIM is executive managing di- rector at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. n Burns & Scalo cel- ebrates new Good- will grand opening HEIDELBERG, PA — The official opening of the new Goodwill store in the Borough of Heidelberg will be celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, February 12. Expected to participate in the 9 a.m. event are Heidelberg Mayor Kenneth LaSota and Borough manager Joe Kauer , representatives of Burns & Scalo Real Estate Services, Inc. , which built and owns the new store, several other local officials, and representatives of Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania. First-day shop- pers will be treated to prizes, giveaways and free refresh- ments. Located at 1905 Wash- ington St., the Heidelberg Goodwill store will employ 20 to 30 people from the local com- munity and is the 31st store operated by Goodwill SWPA. “Heidelberg public officials wel- comed Goodwill and our com- pany to their community with open arms,” said Jim Scalo , president of Burns & Scalo Real Estate Services. “They proved to be wonderful to work with, and as a result a long term partner- ship now exists.” The 14,500 s/f Heidelberg store has about 9,000 s/f of sales floor space and features a convenient drive-through, canopy-covered donation drop- off center. n
experienced throughout the first three q u a r t e r s with positive absorpt i on of 95,253 s/f resulting in 891,241 s/f for calendar
year 2013. Overall vacancy remained stable at 7.8% with class A vacancy at historically low levels of 4.2%. The U.S. economy was able to avoid the Louis Oliva
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