Company trades the Strip for Ross

Parking access among reasons for the move

At a time when lots of companies are moving into the Strip District, one is moving out.

After 30 years in the Strip, West Penn Finance Service Center Inc. has traded the grit and the parking hassles for brand new digs in the suburbs of Ross.

West Penn moved into a 13,000square-foot building at 2250 Babcock Blvd. three weeks ago. It will be joined there by McCandless-based Everest Settlement, a sister company that shares the same ownership.

The building that the two are taking housed a lighting fixtures retailer for many years before being converted to office use by Lockamp Properties LLC, a local development company with 27 properties, nearly all located in the region.

John J. Amrhein, West Penn president, said the company had several reasons for deciding to make the move after three decades at 1800 Smallman St., across from the Primanti Bros. restaurant.

A big one was parking. Mr. Amrhein said some West Penn clients complained about not being able to find a parking spot in the busy Smallman Street and Penn Avenue corridor and wasting precious time circling the block waiting for a space to open up.

Parking, he said, has become a “huge” issue in the Strip. He figured matters were only going to get worse with the redevelopment of the Strip’s produce terminal, which could affect existing Smallman spaces.

The parking situation not only was a problem for customers but

also for employees. While many workers had leases, they were not guaranteed a spot if the spaces were filled. That was an issue because many of the firm’s workers would come and go during the day.

“A couple of our loan officers said they’ve gotten raises since they moved out because they’re not collecting parking tickets,”Mr. Amrhein said.

In making the move, he promised his 41 employees that he would not make any of them travel through more than one tunnel to get to West Penn’s new offices.

While Ross is not as centrally located as the old office, there has been a time savings because of the lack of traffic and congestion, he said. Employees and customers also have access to free parking. Despite the Strip’s vibrancy and buzz these days, he doesn’tregret the move.

“There’s plenty of restaurants around here for lunch and a lot more parking,” he said.

Everest, with its two dozen employees, is making the move because it needed more space. The new location is only about 10 minutes from its old offices.

Because of regulatory requirements, the two companies will share the same building but will maintain separate operations.

Lockamp bought the building last year for $650,000 for a retail use but ended up changing course to accommodate West Penn and Everest.

The development company is operated by Michael Locke, who was a partner in and president of McKnight Property Management, a subsidiary of McKnight Realty Partners, for 20 years before retiring.

Of the 27 properties Lockamp owns, most are in the North Hills, although it also holds real estate in the western part of the county and in Ohio and Missouri.

“We like taking properties that are, I guess, less desirable type properties and coming up with ideas to reposition them and ultimately lease them up,” Mr. Locke said.

Lockamp currently is working on a 17,000- to 20,000-square-foot, built-tosuit office and light manufacturing development in Ross for a business now located on the North Shore.