This morning’s NAIOP Pittsburgh chapter meeting featured a distinguished panel of commercial real estate veterans discussing the state of the market. Lou Oliva from Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, Jason Stewart from JLL, Herky Pollock from CBRE and IRR’s Paul Griffith had generally upbeat things to say about the market in 2017. Notably, the apartment market inspired caution and the growing appetite of investors outside the city was raised up as a big influence on the market. None of the four were particularly concerned about interest rates impacting values in 2017 but all expected the increases to continue.

The brightest segment of the market seems to be industrial. Oliva mentioned that some 800,000 sq. ft. of spec industrial space had been delivered into the market in 2016, with more than 500,000 sq. ft. already absorbed. Here again, the largest deals all involved out-of-town developers.

In addition to the industrial deals mentioned this morning several large projects in the pipeline. Buncher has increased its land stake at Findlay Industrial Park, with the ability to build another 100,000 sq. ft. beyond the 80,000 sq. ft. under construction. Al. Neyer will be building a 200,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Jackson Township near the PMF Trailer facility. Castlebrook Development and Wesex Construction are in the planning stages of the Turnpike Distribution Park in Beaver County. Site plans for that call for 3-5 buildings totaling more than 900,000 sq. ft., including two 400,000 + sq. ft. buildings.

In other news, Rycon Construction was selected for McGuire Woods’ $4 million TI at Tower Two-Sixty. East Liberty Presbyterian Church shortlisted Jendoco, Landau and A. Martini & Co. for its $5 million renovation.