Ongoing projects carry on, but new construction stalls
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at 01:00PMPittsburgh Post-Gazette - March 17, 2009
By Mark Belko
At first glance, anyone visiting Pittsburgh might wonder what happened to the recession.
After all, there's a casino under construction on the North Shore, a new skyscraper being finished off Downtown, which is across the street from an old five-and-dime store being converted into apartments, retail and fitness space.
And the Downtown office market has stayed strong, thanks to moves into the city core or expansions by UPMC, Equitable Resources, Siemens Power Generation and others.
Despite the activity, the recession finally seems to be catching up to the Steel City. Local real estate experts say new development has slowed considerably lately because of tight credit markets and cutbacks or bankruptcies by national retailers.
"I would say that depending on the size of the development, it's become fairly difficult to start any new project of any critical mass due to the number of retailers taking a wait-and-see approach," said Herky Pollock, executive vice president of CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh.
The general rule of thumb is projects that had financing and a start before last fall, when the economy tanked, are still in decent shape. But it's a different story for those that didn't.
Read more...
