The Pittsburgh Regional Alliance held its annual "Winsday" luncheon March 26 and announced that the number of expansion or new business "wins" in 2013 rose 12% to 302. The PRA looks at capital expenditures and development that results in a new business starting or attracted to the region or an expansion. Within the various business sectors, manufacturing had the most wins, 65 compared to 59 in 2012. The information technology sector was second, with a leap to 51 wins vs. 33 in 2012.

On the national economic front, the Commerce Dept. announced that its final estimate of GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2013 had increased to 2.6%, after estimating a 2.4% growth rate in February. Growth came in higher than expected after the quarter began with the government shutdown during the month of October. Also this morning, the Labor Dept. released its report on first-time unemployment claims. Jobless claims declined to 311,000 for the week and to 317,750 as a weekly average for the month. Extended reductions in layoffs such as this are usually precursors to increased hiring.

Project News 

The commercial real estate sector is making noise with new developments in the pipeline. Master developer Buncher Co. is looking to qualify apartment developers to handle the construction of the first residential portion of its Riverfront Landing project in the Strip District. Paragon Foods is taking design-build proposals for a $12 million cold storage warehouse in Lawrenceville. Among the handful of industrial users looking for 100,000 sq. ft.-plus space is online retailer Amazon, which is reportedly looking for 250,000 sq. ft. for later in 2014. If Amazon grows its fulfillment/logistics needs as it has in other regions, a facility that is three or four times as large should be expected inside five years.

In the competitive bid market, one interesting project out this week is a major mechanical/electrical infrastructure project at Verizon's Seventh Street office Downtown. The complete list of invited contractors and subcontractors on the roughly $20 million project can be seen at the Builder's Exchange website.

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