RMU Purchases the Holiday Inn Pittsburgh Airport for Student Housing

By Liviu Oltean, Associate Editor

Robert Morris University has acquired the Holiday Inn Pittsburgh Airport. According to the Pittsburgh Business Times, RMU will initially use the hotel for student housing, ultimately planning to convert the hotel into a residence hall. The hotel, located near the Moon Township campus of RMU, was purchased at a sheriff’s sale.

Jonathan Potts, spokesman for RMU, said that the university will take ownership of the hotel next month, but the property will probably remain as a hotel until 2013. Due to the university’s rapid growth, and because the campus couldn’t accommodate its current student body, 144 students were already residing at the Holiday Inn when the university purchased the property. Until the hotel will be completely redeveloped by RMU, management will reserve units for students depending on the demand.

The Holiday Inn features a 12,000-square-foot conference room and a fitness center. Potts added that in spite of recently adding a new residence hall to the campus, RMU has not been able to keep up with the growing number of students. Gregory G. Dell’Omo, RMU president, declared that the acquisition of the hotel will facilitate the expansion of the university and that it will maintain a high-quality residential standard for students at RMU.

In other regional real estate news, the Oxford Development Company has listed for sale, for the second time this year, Penn Avenue Place. In June 2011, Oxford promoted the downtown building as being 100 percent leased—almost entirely by Highmark. Oxford has now appointed HFF to represent the building. Located at Penn Avenue across Stanwix Street, the 557,559-square-foot building is currently 99.6 percent occupied. Built in 1923 as a Joseph Horne’s department store, Penn Avenue Place was repositioned as an office building in 1997.