A major new tenant signing a lease for two buildings with a development team that expected to build only one for a future tenant to come. A new road opening up more than 240 acres for new development. And the potential to come for another 7,000 acres of land owned by the Airport Authority of Allegheny County.
Such are signs of progress surrounding the Pittsburgh International
Airport detailed by three well-established developers in the area and
Allegheny County Chief Executive Rich Fitzgerald
who participated in a panel discussion at the Corridors of Opportunity
event at the Hyatt Regency Hotel hosted by the Pittsburgh Business
Times.“This corridor continues to grow and to grow in a very positive way,” Fitzgerald said.
Joining Fitzgerald on the panel were Dick Donley, principal of Chaska Properties and co-general partner in the new Pittsburgh International Business Park, which is developing in partnership with Continental Real Estate Cos.; Bill Hunt, chairman of Downtown-based Elmhurst Group, owner of the Airside Business Park among other airport area properties; and Jerry Bunda, president of Imperial Land Corp., the developer of the Findlay Industrial Park, along with plans for others.
Donley is the newest developer to operate in the airport corridor. His joint venture with Continental Real Estate achieved a major boost in October when it reached a lease with mortgage services company Service Link LP, to occupy two 54,000-square-foot buildings the joint venture has started building. Donley described the development so far, which is working with a ground lease with the Allegheny County Airport Authority, as succeeding well beyond expectations.
With more than $14 million of public investment already invested in the infrastructure, Donley said the project as a whole calls for 360,000 square feet of flex office space.
Bunda is hopeful to see similar results at Findlay Industrial Park. The park has seen recent progress with the extension of its main road, Solar Drive, further into property at the master planned development, which he said will now make newly available more than 240 acres for development.
Hunt, whose company has owned Airside Business Park for some time and has been a developer in the western suburbs for 28 years, noted that the tenant demand in the airport area has gradually become more diversified over the years, improving from the days when US Airways dropped the airport as a hub.
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