What was once the largest warehouse between New York and Chicago, with the noise of cargo off-loading from barges and trains, the Terminal Building today quietly ticks along as one of the South Side's best-kept secrets -- except among the 80 businesses and nonprofits that fill it.
When you turn onto Terminal Way off East Carson Street, you see two large buildings on either side of the narrow road, each one four stories high. But it's really the same building. Terminal Way is an elevated road that cuts between the two sides on the Terminal Building's third-floor level.
I entered a lobby on the odd-numbered side and was on the third floor. If you get on the elevator and punch 1, the doors will open to yawning darkness.
The first two floors are bounded by South Third and South Fourth streets and McKean Street, with the outer part surrounded by loading docks and home to industrial tenants. By contrast, Terminal Way creates for its tenants a sort of courtyard, with well-lit, elevated sidewalks on each side.
In 2005, it was renamed the River Walk Corporate Centre.
Built in 1904-1907, it was the Pittsburgh Terminal Warehouse and Transfer Co. with a 30,000-square-foot refrigeration unit that had cork-lined floor, ceiling and walls. The whole building is "just shy of a million square feet," said Mark Bibro, executive director of the Birmingham Foundation, one of the owners and a former building manager.
Before the owners began making upgrades in 2002, he said, the building was "as beautiful, but the insides were still warehouse."
The company spent about $20 million on renovations since 2001, including exterior lighting and windows and electrical, heating and ventilation systems. Tenants are authorized to redo their spaces to suit their needs.
Rents are based on how much investment is needed to make the space suitable, between $8 and $16 per square foot.
The Green Building Alliance tripled its space when it moved in in 2008 from the CCI Center on South 14th Street.
"We were looking close to Downtown where we could be a green building demonstration showcase, and the fact that the building is an adaptive reuse was attractive to us," said Aurora Sharrard, the alliance's director of innovation.
The renovation of its space earned the Green Building Alliance the first LEED platinum certification in Western Pennsylvania. Landmark Design Associates was the architect on that project, as it was on others along Terminal Way.
Tom Stevenson, a Landmark Design Associates principal, said the firm moved to the site six years ago "because we were involved in renovations here."
Several printing and graphics companies are longtime tenants. The Pennsylvania Environmental Council, Just Harvest, Youth Advocate Programs Inc. and Pro Knitwear have also found homes there.
"Early on, it was a great place for printing companies, because it was close to Downtown but had reasonable rents and there was room for small start-ups," Mr. Bibro said.
A surprising part of the building's history is that as big as it is, it has never sat unused or gone to blight like so many century-old industrial buildings and warehouses. More surprising, maybe, is the endurance of the ownership.
In the early 1960s, when the Hillman Corp. owned it, the largest tenant, American Hardware, moved to the suburbs and left the building 80 percent vacant, Mr. Bibro said.
"So eight of the tenants, led by Dan Lackner of Paper Products, walked into Mr. Hillman's office one day with an offer to buy the building."
One of the eight original owners was Mr. Bibro's father, James Bibro, who had a little company called Puro Water.
"Ownership is still in those families," who are incorporated as Pittsburgh Terminal Properties, Mark Bibro said. "In a couple cases it's the third generation by now.
"Can you imagine eight families agreeing about anything for that long?"
First Published: January 31, 2012, 10:00 a.m.
