WSJ on Pgh officespace

[mjcatl2]

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB....html?mod=blogs

Pittsburgh's troubled commercial real-estate market, suffering from lackluster job growth and a stagnant population, has largely missed out on the national property boom.

The pain has been particularly keen for the office market. Although first-quarter office vacancy rates inched down from the year-earlier period, office rents are expected to fall in the near term and rise only 1.9% annually through 2009, just under half the forecast average national rate, according to Property & Portfolio Research Inc., a Boston-based real-estate research firm.

The dollar volume of office sales in Pittsburgh has lagged behind nearby cities like Baltimore and Philadelphia and prices have stayed low, according to Real Capital Analytics, a New York research firm. The region's office space sold at an average price of $71 a square foot in 2004 compared with the national average of $165 a square foot.

and it goes on...

Some investors are betting Pittsburgh's fortunes will improve. Earlier this year the New York-based Blackstone Group bought the 32-story Dominion Tower in downtown Pittsburgh for $73 a square foot at a sheriff's sale. "There was an opportunity to acquire a trophy asset at a substantial discount to replacement cost in a market showing signs of a modest recovery," Blackstone managing director Frank Cohen wrote in an email.

I hope that some sazy people can see what a bargain is to be had in a compact, dense and wonderful location - even with fifth/forbes in its current state, the daytime population is relatively large

[tooluther]

One good thing about the article is that it demonstrated the strength of the downtown housing market. The print edition of the article had a chart showing Apartment vacancies downtown at 6.5% (Very good)

I had heard the article was coming out, and I was very excited for it. I hadn

[TheGerbil]

Most articles I see about Pittsburgh tend to focus on the negative and ignore the positive. I never cease to be frustrated by this trend.

People keep saying there is no conspiracy against Pittsburgh. I disagree. I think there is a subconscious conspiracy of sorts. The world, including most locals, has silently agreed to keep Pittsburgh down by various means. There are some people who put forth a commendable effort to talk up the positives, to do good things and improve the city. But are those efforts strong enough to fight the tide of negativity? We built a spectacular new convention center. We've done wonderful things with our riverfronts, and with old brownfields. We've got great universities, lots of important research is done here... Yet people continue to see the city as dying and dirty. We lose 1% of our population and people claim that folks are leaving in droves.

I don't think the city will get respect until we suddenly gain 5% population, or Microsoft relocates here, or something like that. But it's hard to imagine anything like that happening, especially with all the negativity that abounds.

Sorry, I got off on a tangent there!

[mjcatl2]

Most articles I see about Pittsburgh tend to focus on the negative and ignore the positive. I never cease to be frustrated by this trend.

People keep saying there is no conspiracy against Pittsburgh. I disagree.

This is a business article on a particular subject matter. I have copies of at least 2 NY TImes articles, Atlanta Journal, USA Today and others that do stories on the city, as a place to be or visit and all are incredible reviews.

Again this is a business story and it is accurate. However, there is positive to it. As with the guys that purchased the CNG Tower(sorry, but I still call it that) know, these prices make it a place to invest in.

But that in and of itself won't reverse the awful population trends and that above all is what Pittsburgh has to improve upon.

[TheGerbil]

This is a business article on a particular subject matter. I have copies of at least 2 NY TImes articles, Atlanta Journal, USA Today and others that do stories on the city, as a place to be or visit and all are incredible reviews.

Again this is a business story and it is accurate.  However, there is positive to it.  As with the guys that purchased the CNG Tower(sorry, but I still call it that) know, these prices make it a place to invest in.

But that in and of itself won't reverse the awful population trends and that above all is what Pittsburgh has to improve upon.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, travel articles tend to be positive. But those won't help the way some positive business articles would.

I was exaggerating when I said "Every article," but that is how I sometimes feel.

I realize this one was accurate, I just feel that it left out some crucial, more positive info.

[city guy]

The article by the WSJ should have included info on the upswing in downtown Pittsburgh housing market, the retail initiative and Pennsylvania positive numbers in general.

I don't know why they mentioned Philly, I didn't think our office market was very strong.

If you read this article in the Business Journal, Pennsylvania Housing above national average it says ...Statewide job growth in the first quarter of 2005 was 1.1 percent, the highest quarterly rate in more than four years. Pennsylvania had three years of employment declines before that.

Also..In fact, statewide home price appreciation has outpaced personal income growth since 2000.

That is for the whole state, not just Philly.