Assemblage Case Study

THREE PNC PLAZA

URBAN LAND ASSEMBLAGE

At one time in the mid-1990’s, major Pittsburgh area corporations such as Alcoa, National City Bank, Mellon Bank, PNC Bank and Davy Engineering were analyzing their central business district office occupancy and expansion. Each entity was seeking space in excess of 200,000 square feet thus making it feasible for a developer to combine several of these users into a new high-rise building.

Over 1 acre of land was necessary to consider building a new office tower with in excess of 600,000 square feet of rentable area. No such site existed. Langholz Wilson Ellis, Inc. viewed the lower Fifth Avenue corridor as a primary target for redevelopment and set their sites on a property assemblage. The entire project encompassed thirteen properties involving eight owners and twenty-one leases between Fifth Avenue and Liberty Avenue. The entire site would yield land for development of approximately 1.14 acres surrounded by One and Two PNC Plaza, Fifth Avenue Place, Heinz Hall and Dominion Tower.

Langholz Wilson Ellis, Inc. obtained Options to Purchase the properties within the targeted area and held them for several years while shopping the new development to potential developers and tenants.

The entire assemblage of properties encompassing approximately 49,674 square feet of land ultimately became the cornerstone for Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy’s Fifth and Forbes Avenue Revitalization plan. PNC Bank purchased the assemblage and construction is nearly complete on Three PNC Plaza.