BRANCHING OUT
PPG Place owner gets key approvals for six-story office building in East Liberty
The owner of Downtown’s iconic PPG Place has cleared a major hurdle in its bid to build a new office tower in East Liberty near the Target store.
Highwoods Properties has received the go-ahead from the Pittsburgh Zoning Board of Adjustment to erect the six-story building on a vacant lot at 6135 Penn Ave. in the heart of the neighborhood’s commercial corridor.
In its five-page ruling, the three-member board granted a special exception and four variances Highwoods had sought for the project.
They will allow the Raleigh, N.C., real estate investment trust to build up to six stories and 93 feet.
Without the special exception, Highwoods would have been limited to a four-story structure no more than 60 feet in height.
During a zoning board hearing June 3, Andy Wisniewski, Highwoods’ senior vice president in Pittsburgh, testified that the developer needed the additional floors and height to make the project financially feasible.
In its ruling, the zoning board concluded that Highwoods had “demonstrated that development of the site in strict compliance with the code would be financially infeasible, and that the proposal is the minimum that would afford relief.”
Highwoods also presented evidence to show that the height of the proposed office building would be consistent with other larger structures in the corridor near the site across the street from Target.
With a few minor differences, the board in 2013 had approved a similar special exception and similar variances for another sixstory office building that was to be erected by another developer at the location.
However, that project never got off the ground, and Highwoods purchased the property in 2019 for $2.4 million in its first foray into East Liberty.
In its ruling Friday, the board stated that Highwoods had presented “credible evidence that the proposed development would be generally consistent with the application for development of the subject property from 2013, where the board determined that relief from the code was necessary for the redevelopment of the subject property.”
Besides the special exception and the variance to increase the building’s height, the board approved variances allowing for offsite parking, an increase in the floor area ratio, and a change in
off-site loading space requirements.
Highwoods plans to utilize a Pittsburgh Parking Authority lot adjacent to the site and is working with the Mosites Co. to secure additional parking spaces in the nearby Eastside Bond garage.
Members conditioned the approval on Highwoods’ obtaining LEED certification for the building and that its dimension be consistent with the renderings it provided.
Mr. Wisniewski could not be reached for comment.
He told board members during the hearing that Highwoods had been searching for potential development ventures since it arrived in Pittsburgh in 2011 with the purchase of the castle-like PPG Place complex.
Highwoods, at one time, also had pitched a plan for a four-building, 400,000square-foot office and retail development at SouthSide Works. It gave up on that venture in 2018 after failing to secure a tenant needed to get the development rolling.
It also has toyed with the idea of constructing a new office building in Downtown.
The East Liberty project has won the support of East Liberty Development Inc., with a representative testifying in favor of it during the zoning board hearing. No one spoke against it.
Highwoods also owns the 32-story EQT Plaza on Liberty Avenue, Downtown.