ON THE RISE
New offce building at former Civic Arena site lands second tenant
FNB Financial Center, Pittsburgh’s newest skyscraper, has landed a second tenant.
GH Advertising will move its headquarters to the 26-story office tower being built at the former Civic Arena site before the end of the year.
The company, now located in the First and Market Building on First Avenue in Downtown, will join First National Bank as an occupant of the glass and steel building located at the west end of the 28-acre lower Hill District site.
It will be taking about 5,500 square feet of space on the sixth floor on the building. About 40 employees will make the move, the company announced Tuesday.
Dave Popelka, GH Advertising president, said in a statement the new address is in keeping with the firm’s commitment “to delivering success and creativity for our clients, and to being a great place for our talented employees to work.”
“FNB Financial Center made immediate sense for both of those priorities. Its modern design and exceptional amenities make it a great fit for our hybrid and collaborative approach. We look forward to welcoming clients to our new headquarters and growing our business from Pittsburgh’s historic Hill District,” he said.
Chris Buccini, president of the Buccini Pollin Group, which is developing the office building in partnership with the Pittsburgh Penguins, called GH Advertising “an incredible addition to the ecosystem of FNB Financial Center.”
“We designed and built this tower to be a place where dynamic companies like GH will thrive,” he said.
In an interview, Mr. Buccini said he is hoping to make more announcements in the next few months.
The developer is in “very advanced discussions” with “numerous tenants,” he added.
“Now more than ever people are really focused on their office space and they want something exciting. They want something that makes their [employees] excited to come into their office even if there’s work that can be done at home. So I think our project resonates more today than it ever has,” he said.
Buccini Pollin also is benefiting from the technological advances it has been able to build into the structure post-COVID and the flight-to-quality trend among tenants looking for space, Mr. Buccini said.
“We couldn’t be happier with where we are right now in the leasing activity,” he said.
FNB will be relocating its headquarters from the North Shore to the new building and will serve as its anchor tenant.
It has committed to taking about half of the 400,000 square
feet of office space available. The Post-Gazette reported in January that it may even add more space, perhaps as much as two more floors. As it currently stands, FNB is set to occupy the tower’s top three floors as well as floors eight through 15. As part of its deal to move into the 26floor building, FNB has the option to expand its footprint.
Asked about a possible expansion, Mr. Buccini would only say that FNB has made a very long commitment to the building and that “one would hope that there would be growth over time.”
Of the 26 floors, nine were designated for non-bank tenants as of early November. At the time, JC Pelusi, the Jones Lang LaSalle marketing director who is leasing the space, said that he had letters of intent with tenants to occupy floors six, seven, and 17. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
FNB Financial Center is on track to be completed by early summer. FNB is expected to move in by late summer or fall. About 600 of its employees will be located in the tower. GH Advertising is planning to move in Oct. 1.
In addition to the office space, the building will feature two levels of parking with about 115 spaces for tenants. There will be two retail spaces totaling about 9,000 square feet on the second level and two more totaling nearly 6,000 square feet on the first floor.
GH Advertising is an employee-owned agency that offers brand strategy, media planning and buying, and creative development among its services.
The Penguins, who hold the development rights to the arena site, also are planning another mixed-use building on Block F next to PPG Paints Arena. One prospective tenant believed to be interested in that space is the K&L Gates law firm, which has been considering a move from the Downtown office building that bears its name.
Mr. Buccini said the new building is one of three his firm and the Penguins are planning on blocks D and F. He said he hopes to get started on one of them within the next 12 to 24 months. There have been “numerous conversations” with interested parties, he said.
“We have a lot of interest in those sites and it really kicked off in the third quarter of last year as people were seeing the place making. They could see how these other office buildings would fit in relative to FNB Tower,” he said.
To start another building would require a signed anchor tenant, he stressed. As for any interest by K&L Gates, “I cannot confirm or deny conversations. But like FNB, our conversations have been with really strong local Pittsburgh firms,” Mr. Buccini said.
While the pandemic has taken its toll on office usage, particularly with so many people still working from home at least part of the week, Mr. Buccini said there are still companies out there looking to expand and to move into higher quality space. The same applies to those interested in shrinking their footprint.
The Penguins also have won approval to build a live music venue with a 4,500person capacity and a 910space parking garage next to the FNB Financial Center. They had hoped to start the project early this year but that has yet to happen. Mr. Buccini said Tuesday that a “significant amount of works continues” as it relates to that project, though he could not give a timetable for its start. “The Penguins remain committed to making that a centerpiece of the lower Hill project,” he said. “They’re as committed to it as ever. There’s a lot of work that’s going on.”
On the residential side, team officials and Buccini Pollin have submitted a letter of intent with the public authorities that own the lower Hill site outlining plans to build about 350 residential units just below Crawford Square. Those units would constitute the first phase of a broader residential development that ultimately could involve about 1,000 units on the upper part of the site. As with the music venue, no work has started yet.
“We continue to remain very focused on making that a reality,” Mr. Buccini said. “There’s nothing for me to share at this moment, although there’s a lot of work that continues on that.”