Last week's jobless report showed new claims falling to 304,000, the lowest level since 2007. Yesterday's Congressional testimony from Fed Chair Janet Yellen raised few, if any, concerns about the direction of the U. S. economy. Yellen's comments were most significant to investors in that she elevated fears that rates may be hiked sooner because of improving labor markets. Yellen's other noteworthy comments were about the potential problems from overly optimistic investors in tech companies and those chasing yield creating a bubble. The latter is relevant for the apartment market frenzy that seems not to have topped out yet. You can read more about the details of the economic outlook in the July/August BreakingGround.
Project News
Evidence of the hot multi-family market reappeared in Pittsburgh yesterday with the discovery that Ambling University Development Group would be presenting a plan to Zoning Hearing Board for 389 apartments at the former Allegheny Health Dept. site at 3333 Forbes Ave. in Oakland. That property is the site of a mixed-used hotel/apartment/office project proposed by MWK Development, a partnership of the Massaro Corp., Gary Wilson of LWE and Tasso Katselas.In the 2 weeks prior to that hearing. The ZHB will also hear plans for a new 7-story, 74-unit apartment Uptown from Castlebrook Development and for a 7-story, 32-unit building at 2607 Murray Ave. in Squirrel Hill being developed by AHI Development.
Commercial real estate is by far the hottest segment of the construction market in 2014. Spec office projects are moving forward in strong submarkets across the city and retail projects are surprisingly strong. The demise of the bricks and mortar retail store hasn't occurred yet in the far northern and southern suburbs. Construction is starting on The Street, a 132,000 sq. ft. retail town center Horizon Properties is developing near the Meadows. Horizon's retail/restaurant portion of the Southpointe Town Center is nearly leased up and tenant construction is well underway, with several spaces out-to-bid by the tenants. In the north, WalMart is dipping its toe back in the water in Pittsburgh with a 150,000 sq. ft. store planned for McKnight Rd. at Blazier Dr. in McCandless and Dominic Gigliotti is proposing another neighborhood retail center in Cranberry, a 93,000 sq. ft. center similar to the retail portion of the Village at Pine. At the same time, Wexford is seeing a boom in small retail, with a Wendy's, Auto Zone, Chick-fil-A, new branch bank and a handful of new tenants in the Wexford Plaza. And all of this is in addition to another 90,000+ sq; ft. of new construction at AdVenture's McCandless Crossing.
TEDCO is wrapping up construction on Heyl Patterson's renovation of the 27,000 sq. ft. former Zitech HQ in Carnegie. Uhl has started work on the $5 million Baierl Ford dealership in Zelienople. TMI Hospitality started work on 2 new hotels in the Parkway West corridor, a 95-room TownePlace Suites and a 103-room Fairfield Inn & Suites.
Correction:
Information in the July 9 BreakingNews contained an error. The correct list of contractors invited to bid the Carnegie Library in Beechview on July 24 is Allegheny Construction, Burchick, Massaro, TEDCO & Volpatt.
