A site once occupied by a company that made bricks for fiery steel mill ovens now will try to make its mark in the real estate cauldron known as the Strip District.
New Jersey-based Rugby Realty is teaming with Cincinnati developer Al. Neyer to produce the Brickworks at 21st and Smallman — a seven-story office and retail development to be built next to the produce terminal at 21st and Smallman streets in the Strip.
The $80 million project, which will stretch from 21st to 23rd Street, is designed to be developed in two parts — a $39 million first phase featuring 230,000 square feet of office and 20,000 square feet of retail.
A second phase would consist of 175,000 square feet of office and 10,000 square feet of retail.
However, Aaron Stauber, Rugby president, said the entire development could be built all at once should discussions with one prospect bear fruit.
Rugby will brief the Pittsburgh Planning Commission on the Brickworks project Tuesday.
Mr. Stauber acquired the properties needed for the development over a period of years going back to about 2006. One of the properties housed Benkovitz Seafoods, a Strip fixture that closed in 2013.
The other large parcel at 21st Street dates back to 1884 when it was home to the Star Fire Brick Works, a company that made specialty bricks for steel mills. Decades later, it was the site of the Tom Ayoob Inc. produce wholesaler and Acme Banana Co.
Rugby is jumping into a Strip office market that could be hotter than a steel mill blast furnace.
As a companion to its produce terminal work, Chicago-based McCaffery Interests is redeveloping the vacant 1600 Smallman building into three floors of offices and street level retail.
Blocks away, Oxford Development Co. is starting the second phase of its highly successful 3 Crossings project. Called the Stacks, it could include up to six office buildings.
On Smallman Street closer to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, RDC Design + Build and Orangestar Properties have finished the four-story District 15 building, which will house Facebook, and are getting ready to start on their companion — the nine-story District 15 Beta Version, which will include 205,000 square feet of office and 5,000 square feet of retail.
With all the competition, Rugby stands the chance of getting burned. But Mr. Stauber believes his product, with its 45,000-square-foot floor plates in phase one and the location, will more than hold its own.
He said 21st and Smallman is a “strong address” because it is so centrally located in the Strip.
“You get all of the advantages of the Strip, but you’re close enough to Downtown to walk,” he said.
Beyond that, he thinks there’s enough demand to satisfy everyone. After all, workers will have to fill up all of those apartments, condos and townhouses being built in the Strip.
“I think there’s a user for each of us,” he said. “I think it’s all complementary.”
Rugby has no signed tenants for the development at this point, but Mr. Stauber believes they will come, given that the Strip is fast becoming the region’s tech hub.
“Obviously with all of the activity in the Strip, we’re in a sufficient amount of discussions with prospects that we feel it makes sense to move the ball forward,” he said.
On the retail side, Rugby is looking for tenants like restaurants, coffee houses and drugstores that will complement the development and not detract from the Penn Avenue corridor or even the proposed produce terminal mix.
Mr. Stauber said major drugstore chains have reached out to Rugby about the development. There’s also interest from banks and a brew pub, he said.
Al. Neyer will serve as the quarterback for the development. Desmone Architects also will be involved.
The Strip District Neighbors community group has reviewed the project and has no problems with it, president Matt Napper said.
“We did not see any real issues with the development or anything that would cause any issues with the community,” he noted.
Mr. Stauber is returning to the Strip 30 years after making his first foray into the neighborhood. In 1989, when he was with another company, he bought two vacant warehouses on Liberty Avenue that he converted into office, retail and other uses before selling the properties in the 1990s.
Rugby Realty, his current company, may be best known for the prized properties it owns in Downtown, including historic gems like the Frick Building, the Koppers Building and Gulf Tower.
In the Strip, the Star Fire Brick Works is long gone. But Mr. Stauber has found souvenirs — several old bricks produced by the company.
“I think they’ll make their way somehow into the property,” he said.
Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
First Published: June 17, 2019, 10:00 a.m.
