Another major office building is in the works in Oakland.
Walnut Capital finalized the purchase of a vacant building at 3342 Fifth Ave. near Carlow University on Tuesday with plans to erect a new office complex at the site.
The Shadyside developer paid $2.1 million to buy the property from Allegheny County. With the purchase, it will control a tract — stretching from Halket Street to the Skyvue Apartments — needed for the new building.
Todd Reidbord, Walnut Capital president, said the number of stories to be built is still to be decided. The developer had been considering as many as eight to 10. The building likely will be designed to serve the tech, medical or university community.
“We’re pretty flexible. We can design the building to meet the needs of whomever will lease it,” Mr. Reidbord said.
Walnut Capital will present its plans for the building at a community meeting sponsored by Oakland Planning and Development Corporation next month. It also is requesting height and other variances from the city that will be the subject of a zoning board of adjustment meeting in February.
The proposed construction comes as Walnut Capital nears the completion of a $8 million project to convert a former Cadillac dealership at 3224 Boulevard of the Allies near UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital into 41,000 square feet of office space.
Walnut Capital already has lined up a tenant, believed to be UPMC, to take the entire building. Mr. Reidbord declined comment. No details were immediately available from UPMC.
As part of the rehab, the company and Strada, its architect, gutted the interior while cleaning and preserving the former dealership’s brick exterior. Walnut Capital expects to have the building ready for occupancy next summer.
The developer also has started demolition within the five-story Pittsburgh Athletic Association clubhouse on Fifth Avenue as part of a $25 million rehab that will include office and restaurant space. Also planned are a new fitness facility and club room.
Walnut Capital is in the process of redeveloping the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh headquarters — two separate buildings at 234 and 242 McKee Place totaling 14,000 square feet.
It envisions another Bakery Square-like complex there that could be attractive to tech firms interested in being close to Carnegie Mellon University or the University of Pittsburgh.
In the short term, the company has entered into a three-year lease with a tenant to occupy the space while it more fully develops plans for the site.
Mr. Reidbord said Walnut Capital has embraced the innovation district concept described in a Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution study that identified Oakland, one of the tightest office markets in the region, as a place for academic researchers to work closely with entrepreneurs.
And with the investments by Pitt and CMU, Oakland seemed like a prime spot for more development, Mr. Reidbord added.
“We’re very bullish on Oakland,” he said. “We want to be part of that whole innovation district in Oakland. We think that’s where the potential is.”
One reason Bakery Square has been so successful, Mr. Reidbord said, is that companies like Philips Sleep and Respiratory Care, which will anchor a new building in the complex, want to be close to collaborators.
He believes the same is true in Oakland.
Walnut Capital is not the only one building in Oakland.
Murland Associates LP is erecting an eight-story office building at Forbes and Coltart avenues that is expected to be completed next year. The 95,000-square-foot Murdoch Building will feature on-site parking, bike storage, lockers and showers, rooftop patios, and electric car charging.
Pitt already has agreed to lease the top four floors of the building. A CVS store will relocate to the building’s street-level space from its current location about a block away.
Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
First Published: December 19, 2018, 12:30 p.m.
