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Pace quickens at airport office park
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Less than a year after reaching a deal to construct a new office park near Pittsburgh International Airport, the developers have landed their first tenant and are ready to break ground on not one but two buildings in the 40-acre complex.
Columbus, Ohio-based Continental Real Estate Cos. and Chaska Property Advisors of Cranberry are expected to start construction next month on two 53,000-square-foot, single-story office buildings on land owned by the Allegheny County Airport Authority.
The buildings will be occupied by ServiceLink, a mortgage services company with offices in Moon and Hopewell. The company will be moving its Moon operations into the new buildings.
Under its agreement with the airport authority, Continental and Chaska were expected to start construction on one building this year. But the deal with ServiceLink enabled them to better that.
"They've been working hard on it. They were getting ready to start a building around this time. They were fortunate enough to get a tenant so that will allow them to start two buildings simultaneously," said Randy Forister, airport authority senior director of development.
Because of that, the developers are about 18 months ahead of schedule on a development that is expected to include five to eight office buildings. The development, called Pittsburgh International Business Park, is located next to Cherrington business park in Moon.
Mr. Forister said construction is expected to take six to nine months. ServiceLink most likely will move into the new buildings next August.
Once Continental and Chaska, which developed the Cranberry Business Park, complete the first two buildings, they will start a third, mostly likely to be built on speculation unless they've lined up another tenant.
The authority is leasing the land to the joint venture for 18 to 40 cents a square foot. Under their deal with the authority, the developers had up to 12 months to start the first building. After that, they are required to develop another building every 18 months or risk having the development agreement terminated.
Each of the buildings will feature class A office space. The facades will be made up of brick and glass. Continental Building Systems, an arm of Continental Real Estate, is responsible for constructing the buildings.
First Published October 26, 2012 12:00 am
