Colliers International | Pittsburgh Sells 31st Street Studios for $14 Million
New York-based North River Pittsburgh I, LLC purchased 31st Street Studios, the largest sound stage between New York and Los Angeles, for $14 Million. The 238,000 square foot multi-industrial complex sits riverfront on 9.36 acres in Pittsburgh’s iconic Strip District.
“The sale of the 31st Street Studios property is yet another example of the high velocity of the Strip District commercial real estate market and brings yet another high quality investment firm to the Pittsburgh market,” said Gregg Broujos, Managing Director & Founding Principal of Colliers International | Pittsburgh, who served as the broker for the public auction.
In addition to Broujos, John Bilyak, Principal, and Justin Kline, Associate for Colliers International | Pittsburgh along with Robert O. Lampl Law Office, represented the seller, Gateway Entertainment Studios LP.
“It was a team effort, but Gregg was instrumental in getting the property sold,” said Ryan Cooney, Lawyer at Robert O. Lampl Law Office. “With a bankruptcy case, there are more moving parts than your typical transaction, and Gregg was able to communicate well with everyone involved.”
According to their website, 31st Street Studios is home to many film and television productions with Sony Pictures, Paramount, and Netflix. Past productions include Dark Knight Rises, Jack Reacher, Fences, Southpaw, and Concussion.
Broujos commends Chris Breakwell, President and CEO of Gateway Entertainment Studios, for the phenomenal job he has done with the movie studio.
“It brings in an incredible amount of economic activity to the Pittsburgh region, and we really owe him a debt of gratitude for his work over the years and into the future.”
Broujos Gets Soaked for ALS
What is the best way to spend your lunch hour during the work week? Running errands, trying out a new restaurant, or watching your boss get soaked on purpose? Definitely the latter of the three!
Our office was able to experience this first hand last Thursday as our Managing Director and Founding Principal, Gregg Broujos, participated in the CEO Soak to raise funds for the ALS Association of Western Pennsylvania Chapter. Alongside a dozen other Pittsburgh CEOs, Broujos volunteered to stand in the PPG Place fountains as they went off for one minute.
“Colliers International was proud to participate in the inaugural CEO Soak to assist in the fight against ALS,” Broujos said. “Mike Daniels and the ALS Association / Western Pennsylvania Chapter did an incredible job of organizing this event and hitting their goal of $50,000.”
Our firm raised over $3,000 to help care for those directly affected by ALS.
Broujos added, “We were happy to honor our colleague, Joe Fryz of Tarquincore, who bravely fought ALS and showed us all how to deal courageously with this disease that we ARE going to wipe out.”
The participants after the soak.
Justin Kline Completes Leadership Pittsburgh’s Leadership Development Initiative (LDI)
Justin Kline, Investment Sales Associate at Colliers International | Pittsburgh, recently graduated from the Leadership Pittsburgh LDI Class XXIV. Kline, alongside the 50 members in his cohort, completed 31 credits in leadership sessions and activities, participated in an overnight retreat and implemented community impact projects over the course of 9 months.
According to the Leadership Pittsburgh website, LDI is a leadership training program for high-potential young professionals that utilizes data-driven training models and provides access to experts who share experiences. The goal of LDI is to build future leaders of the Pittsburgh community.
“We are proud of the accomplishments of Justin Kline, and his 50 fellow LDI XXIV participants, in successfully completing the Leadership Development Initiative program,” said Sarah Miele, Program Manager for Leadership Pittsburgh. “We at Leadership Pittsburgh Inc. are inspired to know that our region’s future is in the hands of these incredibly talented leaders.”
Kline now joins a network of 2,400 Leadership Pittsburgh alumni.
Miele continues, “As they follow in the footsteps of alumni that came before them, we look forward to their enhanced engagement in the civic sector of our community and to their contributions in making Pittsburgh truly the most livable city.”
“Colliers International l Pittsburgh is extremely proud of the commitment that Justin has shown with his graduation from the LDI program,” said Gregg Broujos, Managing Director & Founding Principal at Colliers International | Pittsburgh. “As a young businessman in an extremely competitive industry, Justin chose to better define his leadership capabilities, while also examining more ways to help our communities throughout Western Pennsylvania.”
Brewing Up A Foodie City
With the inauguration of President Trump fresh in our minds, it would be appropriate to discuss the impact of a new presidency on the retail real estate world. Will new tariffs impact retailers like Best Buy and Walmart, or could new manufacturing emerge that might lower costs? Instead of discussing these weighty issues, and because Colliers International | Pittsburgh has its priorities straight, we would prefer to talk about beer. Specifically the burgeoning microbrewery explosion we have seen in our region.
Combined with a hot restaurant scene, Pittsburgh’s food options have never been better.
The excitement in Pittsburgh’s food scene is headlined by the strong growth in regional micro-breweries. Just this past month Mindful Brewing opened their new location on Route 88 in Castle Shannon. At the same time Southern Tier Brewing Company opened on the North Shore and Helltown Brewing announced it is expanding to Bloomfield. By some count, no fewer than seventeen breweries are planned or expected to open in the region in 2017. While many might wonder if this could be too much of a good thing, Kyle Mientkiewicz of Grist House Craft Brewery, one of Pittsburgh’s first and most popular craft breweries disagrees. “In the grand scheme of things I don’t think the market is
saturated yet,” he said, “but if you do enter the market you better have a good product”. Grist House’s success has shown other entrepreneurs that people will seek out good
beer.
Local craft breweries are only a part of Pittsburgh’s strong restaurant scene. National and regional restaurant chains are expanding rapidly within the market and competing for real estate options. Restaurants active in the market include Firebirds, Bomba, Hello Bistro, Plaza Azteca, Choolah, Mission BBQ, Emiliano’s, and many others. By some counts there may be dozens of restaurant concepts competing for the same prime locations. The result is a lack of opportunities for smaller local restaurants and increasing rental rates. Restaurants that used to lease space for $15 or $18 per square foot are now forced to deal with market rents that range between $25 and $40 per square foot. Rising occupancy and labor costs create a conundrum for many restauranteurs. Joe Billhimer, a franchisee of multiple restaurant concepts said, “The implications of higher rents, coupled with increasing difficulty in finding quality workers and their ability to get to your location absent mass transportation services, has added another factor into deciding the right location for a restaurant to be prosperous. It has become very important to look at your location and the availability of workers.“
Some pundits believe that, nationally, there is an oversupply of restaurant uses and that there will be a market correction. In a recent poll by the National Restaurant Association, only 17% of restaurateurs believed that the market for restaurants will improve over the next year, while 29% see conditions worsening. Of course, we know that polls don’t always correlate with reality, so have a beer, leave the politics aside and enjoy the plethora a food options that Pittsburgh provides.
To read the full Q1 2017 Pittsburgh Retail Newsletter, click here.
