UPMC opposes historic designation for a building it is scheduled to sell tomorrow -- the Paramount Pictures Exchange, Uptown -- fearing restrictions imposed by historic status will make it hard to sell.

In the audience at the hearing, prospective buyer Rick Schweikert said he doesn't want the hassle of historic status, either, but he intends to sign papers tomorrow regardless. Council is expected to vote on the nomination of the 1926 warehouse on Wednesday.

"If it gets designated, I have to have the Historic Review Commission tell me if they like my windows," said Mr. Schweikert. "Designation just makes my cost higher. But I intend to preserve the interior and the exterior anyway."

The 8,500-square-foot building was Paramount's distribution and screening location for area theater owners from 1926 into the early 1980s. The county used it to store chemicals for several years afterward. In 2008, UPMC acquired the building in the course of its merger with Mercy Hospital.

Described by UPMC attorney David Montgomery as "a plain brick warehouse that was the Blockbuster of its day and nothing more," the Paramount was nominated for historic status by Drew Levinson, a film student, and Dan Holland, president of the Pittsburgh Young Preservationists Association.

Mr. Schweikert said he wanted to buy it in 1997 but the owner asked too much for it. He said he doesn't remember that price, and none of the parties wanted to disclose the current price.

Mr. Schweikert's idea is to restore the building into a film center, with an archivist and a screening room for the public. "I decided to do something on the order of a nickelodeon, but a 'buckelodeon,' where you can watch a loop of films for a buck," he said. (The first nickelodeon was in Pittsburgh in 1905.)

Mr. Schweikert said he has developed four buildings in the city and expects to spend at least $200,000 on this one.

The film exchange building, at 1727 Boulevard of the Allies, is a two-story red brick and terra cotta building with Deco-style terra cotta detailing around the main doorway and the Paramount logo still in place above it.

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