$130M Office Project in Suburban Pittsburgh Gets Underway
Local developer Burns Scalo Real Estate is counting on a highly amenitized product to thrive as office tenants return.
Groundbreaking will take place next Monday, Aug. 1, on a $130 million, 172,000-square-foot speculative office building in northwest suburban Pittsburgh, local developer Burns Scalo Real Estate announced Wednesday.
The building, at 2400 Market Place Blvd., a couple of miles southeast of Pittsburgh International Airport, is the first of three offices planned for the Diamond Ridge Mixed-Use Campus, in Moon Township.
The design reportedly offers 2.5 times more outdoor space than any previous office in the Parkway West submarket and features integrated indoor/outdoor fitness amenities, including private pickle-ball courts.
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In a prepared statement, the company said that as momentum for the return-to-work gains steam, companies are recognizing that, for their employees, it must be a magnet, not a mandate.
According to Burns Scalo CEO Jim Scalo, there will be a massive bifurcation between the older, non-amenitized office and newer experiential product. “We’re making the world of work, work better for people,” he added in prepared remarks.
In addition to the office campus, the overall Diamond Ridge project is planned to include 118 townhouse units, 323 single-family lots, 400 multifamily units, 336 apartments, and 15,000 square feet of retail.
The township is undertaking a two-phase, estimated $15 million plan to improve access to and from the site, with the initial phase starting in mid-2023.
Not afraid of office spec development
Interestingly, given Scalo’s comments on amenitized space, a second-quarter office market report from JLL highlights law firm Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote’s new lease for nearly 80,000 square feet at Four Gateway Center in Pittsburgh. The firm, according to JLL, trimmed their footprint by more than 25,000 square feet in the move, but gained access to the building’s $5 million in amenity upgrades, including a tenant lounge, a fitness center and collaboration spaces.
In March, Burns Scalo director of agency brokerage Scott DiGuglielmo described the market factors behind The Riviera, the company’s six-floor, 160,000 square-foot speculative life science building in the Pittsburgh Innovation District. That structure features a 2,000-square-foot fitness center, outdoor “zen deck” with connected green space, and a coffee shop and eatery.
