Pittsburgh plays host to a growing and thriving commercial real estate market where investors and tenants alike can achieve promising returns on their investments.
Crexi equips those looking for Pittsburgh commercial real estate with access to a robust library of investment-ready assets and the tools needed to research, discover, and acquire their next investment.
Brokers marketing Pittsburgh commercial property harness Crexi’s powerful listing management tools to navigate deals from list to close. To date, Crexi’s commercial real estate tools have helped brokers to close more than $330 billion in asset value and market more than $2 trillion in investments.
Crexi proudly supports Pittsburgh, Ross Township, Homestead, Bethel Park, Bridgeville and the surrounding communities as the nation’s fastest-growing commercial real estate platform.
The State of Pittsburgh Commercial Real Estate
Known as the “Steel City” for its manufacturing roots and countless steel-related businesses, the economy of Pittsburgh is diversifying with high-tech industries including e-learning, autonomous vehicles, and biotechnology. In fact, tech in Pittsburgh is one of the biggest industries in the area, and ranks second in the U.S. for information technology degrees.
Located in the southwest corner of the state where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet, Pittsburgh is the second most-populous city in Pennsylvania and the business and cultural center of Western Pennsylvania.
Slow but steady economic growth combined with more workers returning to the office this year could make commercial real estate in Pittsburgh an attractive value proposition this year.
Pittsburgh Regional Breakdown
Over the past 10 years, the population of Allegheny County (where Pittsburgh is located) added more than 27,000 new residents. Population growth in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area is slow and steady, as the economy continues to transition from steel manufacturing to hosting high-technology firms such as Apple, Duolingo, Google, and Niche.com:
- Pittsburgh is home to 303,000 in the city with more than 2.3 million residents in the metropolitan area.
- Over the past 10 years, the population of Allegheny County increased by 2.2%, according to the most recent U.S. Census.
- Pittsburgh is the second most populous city in Pennsylvania, and is the largest in the Ohio Valley and Appalachian regions.
- Median age in Pittsburgh is 43.1 years, a little higher than the state and the U.S. figures.
- Per capita income in Pittsburgh is $37,195 and median household income is $61,969.
- Over the past year median household incomes in Pittsburgh increased by 4.9% while property values grew by 3.5%.
Pittsburgh Job Market
The economy in Pittsburgh continues to recover, with the metropolitan area adding 40,000 jobs through the end of 2021. Job sectors showing the strongest growth in Pittsburgh include information services, leisure and hospitality, manufacturing, and trade and transportation:
- GDP for Pittsburgh is $153.4 billion and has grown by more than 31% over the past ten years.
- Unemployment rate in metropolitan Pittsburgh is 5.8% as of January 2022.
- Fastest growing employment sectors in Pittsburgh are information services and leisure and hospitality.
- Over the last few decades Pittsburgh has been transitioning from a manufacturing town to a diverse economy, home to innovative industries including technology, biotech/life sciences, and financial and professional services.
- Pittsburgh has more STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) jobs than any other city with a declining population, according to Pew Research.
- High-tech employers in Pittsburgh include Amazon, Facebook, Gecko Robotics, Google, and RoadBotics.
- Metropolitan Pittsburgh is home to Fortune 500 companies such as Dick’s Sporting Goods, The Kraft Heinz Corporation, and PNC Financial Services.
- Major companies in Pittsburgh include RAND Corporation, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, GlaxoSmithKline, and Allegheny Technologies.
- Largest employer in Pittsburgh is the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center with 92,000 world-wide employees.
- Over 94% of the residents in Pittsburgh are high school graduates, while 36% hold a bachelor’s degree or an advanced degree.
- Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh, and Duquesne University are three of the many colleges and universities in metropolitan Pittsburgh.
The transportation infrastructure of Pittsburgh includes numerous interstate highways, freight railroad operators CSX and Norfolk Southern, the Port of Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh International Airport.
Pittsburgh Industrial Market
Pittsburgh industrial absorption has remained positive for six consecutive quarters, with over one million square feet leased in Q4 2021 alone. Overall asking rents for industrial space in Pittsburgh are holding steady, while rent prices for distribution and warehouse space are up nearly 13% year-to-date with no sign of slowing down:
- Total industrial inventory: 118,050,625 SF
- Average asking rent: $6.61 per SF per year, overall, NNN
- Vacancy rate: 6.3%
- Absorption: 2.1 million SF in 2021
- Key lease transactions by tenant: Nogin for 255,000 SF, Impact Guard for 159,000 SF
- New construction: 458,000 SF completed in 2021 with 967,000 SF under construction
- Key construction completions: Amazon for 280,000 SF, Osh Kosh for 400,000 SF
- Largest industrial submarkets: Westmorland County, Northeast Pittsburgh, South Pittsburgh, Butler County
Discover Pittsburgh industrial space for rent.
Pittsburgh Office Market
Office users in Pittsburgh continue to fine-tune their space requirements, leading to a large amount of tenant relocations and a flight to quality. CBRE and the architectural firm LGA Partners both moved to larger spaces in the Central Business District, while the Oakland/East-End submarket has witnessed a flurry of deal-making activity:
- Total office inventory: 56,755,890 SF
- Average asking rents: $27.85/SF per year for Class A space, and $21.06/SF per year for Class B office space.
- Vacancy rate: 20.8%
- Net Absorption: -391,030 SF in 2021
- Leasing activity: 2.1 million SF YTD 2021
- Key leasing activity: CBRE for 19,000 SF, LGA Partners for 15,000 SF, Duolingo 38,000 SF, Sheetz convenience store 20,000 SF.
- New construction: 1.2 million SF currently under construction
- Largest office submarkets: Central Business District, Parkway West, Fringe, North
Discover Pittsburgh office space for lease.
Pittsburgh Retail Market
Despite significant economic headwinds, the Pittsburgh retail market was resilient through all of last year, with vacancy rates trending down by 40 basis points year-to-date. Decreasing vacancy and limited new deliveries are helping to keep asking rents steady, with big box retailers in particular thriving in the urban submarkets:
- Total retail inventory: 151,342,268 SF
- Average asking rent: $1411 per SF per year, NNN
- Vacancy rate: 4.6%
- Absorption: 125,702 SF in 2021
- Key leasing activity by tenant: M@C Discount; Dick’s Sporting Goods’ discount concept Going, Going, Gone; and BJ’s Wholesale Club.
- New construction: 321,173 SF delivered in 2021 with 101,641 SF currently under construction
- Largest retail submarkets: South Pittsburgh, Westmoreland, North Pittsburgh, Washington
Discover Pittsburgh retail property for lease.
Pittsburgh Multifamily Market
Higher-wage technology employment and job growth are leading a slow but steady recovery of the multifamily market in Pittsburgh. Just over 90% of the new multifamily units under construction in the metropolitan area are targeting high-income renters:
- Total housing units: 1,017,860
- Renter occupied: 30%
- Effective rent per unit: $1,176
- Effective rent growth: 6.0%
- Vacancy rate: 4.3%
- New construction: 1,432 units delivered in 2021, with 3,131 units currently under construction
- Investment sales trends: $14 million in Q4 2021, $114,443 per unit, 6.7% market cap rate
- Median household income: $61,969
- Per capita income: $37,195
Discover Pittsburgh multifamily property for sale.
How Crexi Connects Buyers and Tenants to Pittsburgh Commercial Real Estate
Buyers and principals looking for Pittsburgh real estate use Crexi’s search tools and robust marketplace to quickly find the perfect asset for their investment goals.
Tenants and investors can browse thousands of Pittsburgh listings, filtering properties by price or rate per square foot, neighborhood, cap rate, square footage, asset type, and several other filters.
Upon finding the perfect Pittsburgh property, buyers and tenants can connect to the listing broker to learn more, download brochures, and even submit a letter of intent (LOI) through the platform.
Intelligence Equips Investors with Data and Market Knowledge
Proper due diligence and research are essential steps in the property acquisition process. Crexi Intelligence enhances and simplifies the research process for Pittsburgh commercial property.
Intelligence contains hundreds of thousands of detailed property records and sales comparables. A dedicated Insights tab on every property page showcases real-time Pittsburgh market data, such as average regional square footage, demographic insights, foot traffic levels , and more.
Intelligence is available to buyers, sellers, and tenants on a subscription basis.
How Pittsburgh Brokers Thrive with Crexi
Pittsburgh brokers and those working with Pittsburgh properties list more than Crexi to list nearly 1000 properties for sale and lease in the region. Pittsburgh’s growing investment opportunities are presented to a nationwide database of interested buyers and tenants, all connected to the market by Crexi’s listing platform.
Commercial agents in Pittsburgh also harness Crexi’s tools to acquire leads, access real-time sales insights, and amplify their marketing reach to the broadest, most relevant audience pool.
Pittsburgh commercial agents use Crexi to market assets across different segments, including:
- Offices units
- Multifamily developments
- Industrial buildings
- Mixed-use buildings
- Hospitality assets
- Retail properties
- Land parcels
- Non-traditional properties such as data centers, self-storage, etc.
Using Crexi, Pittsburgh brokers navigate assets from start to finish using one convenient ecosystem. Brokers can even organize due diligence paperwork via Crexi’s secure file storage.
These tools are free for all brokers, but Crexi’s true power appears with Sale PRO, Lease PRO, and All PRO.
Crexi’s All PRO Membership
Crexi PRO elevates broker workflows with cutting edge, automated marketing tools to help widen their reach and close deals faster. Pittsburgh brokers enjoy enhanced access to detailed lead contacts and can easily report their progress to their clients with branded reports. Crexi PRO simplifies operations and frees up time for brokers to do what they do best: build connections and win deals.
PRO enhances successful marketing processes with machine-learning-powered automation tools to connect Pittsburgh listings with relevant, active buyers. PRO listings enjoy preferential placement at the top of machine-learning-curated results pages and are seen by thousands of active property seekers based on their search behavior.
Crexi also sends out weekly marketing blasts automatically, featuring curated lists of PRO properties that receive a 10-15% higher engagement rate than industry benchmarks.
Crexi PRO users can access Intelligence’s full library and research capabilities at no added cost, enjoying detailed market knowledge to provide to their clients.
Using Crexi PRO, brokers can easily connect with the more than 68,500 leads interested in Pittsburgh property in the last two years and over 12.5 million leads nationwide who searched using Crexi in 2021.
On average, Crexi PRO users successfully win 125% more leads and close up to eight times more deals than non-PRO users.
Contact support@crexi.com to learn more about All PRO.
