Pittsburgh's office market has been in the news more of late. With occupancy near record high levels, there is some space starting to hit the market. CBRE announced that it had been retained to lease the former Citizen's Bank HQ at 525 William Penn Place. Some 600,000 sq. ft. are available and the owner intends to make upgrades to bring the building into Class A shape. Likewise, Shorenstein Properties has begun to invest what will ultimately be $80 million or more to "Class A" One Oxford Centre. In the Parkway West corridor, Burns & Scalo Real Estate Services purchased the former GlaxoSmithKline HQ and will be leasing and updating that building.

With users like First National Bank and SAP in the market for 150,000 square feet (plus or minus), the fresh investment in old buildings and the potential for new buildings, like what is proposed on the North Shore, brings options for big users that haven't existed in years.

In economic news, unemployment crept up to 5.9% in Pittsburgh in August - an increase of 0.8 percentage points over August 2015. Total employment also increased, meaning that more workers joined the workforce. That could mean that efforts to attract more people from the sidelines, or from out of town, are succeeding. It could also mean that Pittsburgh's job openings don't match the skills of those not currently working.