Colliers Executes Pittsburgh’s Largest Scattered-Site Deal
The 150-parcel portfolio comprises residential and mixed-use assets.
Colliers’ Pittsburgh capital markets team has delivered the largest sale of a scattered site portfolio in the greater Pittsburgh area’s history. The collection of assets comprises 297 turnkey units in the Lawrenceville, Homestead, Polish Hill, East Liberty, Highland Park and Garfield neighborhoods.
The purchase price and the identity of the buyer and sellers could not immediately be learned.
Some of the assets in the 150-parcel portfolio were built as far back as the 1950s. The mix includes single-family homes, multifamily homes and apartments located above retail shops with generational ownership. “Those owners were looking for an exit after two or three decades,” Bryan McCann, senior vice president of the capital markets team at Colliers, told Multi-Housing News.
McCann, who led the effort, said it was the most complex transaction he’s worked on in brokerage. “It wasn’t one thing or one asset that made it complex, it was the aggregate of it all,” he observed. “You had different municipalities and stipulations all happening at the same time.” McCann and his team have worked on other scattered site deals in this region.
Pittsburgh market weathers macro trends
The Pittsburgh multifamily market has kept afloat in a challenging national environment. The metro’s rents were flat on a trailing three-month basis through February, at $1,345, while the U.S. rate was down 0.1 percent during the same timeframe. The metro’s average occupancy in stabilized properties stood at 94.8 percent as of February, recording an 80-basis-point decrease in 12 months.
Pittsburgh employment expanded by 1.6 percent last year, 40 basis points below the U.S. rate, adding 10,800 net jobs to the workforce.
Education and health services added the most positions: 4,900. According to preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate stood at 2.9 percent as of December, 80 basis points lower than the U.S. figure. A new $250 million biomanufacturing facility set to take shape on the 178-acre Hazelwood Green will add to the metro’s life science footprint.
