Anyone who didn’t see this coming is just flat out blind.
Even without Covid, Pittsburgh has been a long downward trend downtown... Yes they have built a few more office towers, but overall Downtown Pittsburgh is a bigger and bigger dump every year.
Yes the Theater District did liven up that area bit, and they have been converting old office buildings into condos as fast as they can, but there just still isn’t really a draw to be downtown, and the office building being turned to apartments was to try to do something with all the empty office space that Pitt already has, more and more of it is coming...
BNYMellons lease on the BNYMellon tower is up in a few years, and they will vacate, most if not all of the floor splace they have there.... and that’s no small building.. etc etc etc.
I just do not see Pittsburgh’s fate improving in the near term.
I’m surprised, everything I’ve heard about downtown Pittsburgh in recent years is that it was vibrant and lively with nightlife, bars, restaurants. I haven’t visited the city myself in 20 years, just what I had heard.