For nearly 14 years, Holly Brubach, a former New York Times style editor, held on to the dream of redeveloping a majestic old Downtown building in her hometown of Pittsburgh.
But with money running low and banks unwilling to help, Ms. Brubach has decided to let it go. This is one dream that will die hard.
“I would say I was really sorry not to make this work,” she said. “It was exciting for me to come back to my hometown and do something for the good of the city.”
After failing in her bids to convert the historic Granite Building into condos and then a boutique hotel, Ms. Brubach has decided to sell the property located at Wood Street and Sixth Avenue next to the Duquesne Club.
She admits that it’s hard to walk away after investing so much time — and money — into a project that was dear to her heart.
“I couldn’t keep it up. I’m one person. I’m not a huge development corporation. Financially, it got too tough for me,” she said.
Ms. Brubach bought the slender and ornate Granite Building, designed in the same Richardsonian Romanesque style as the Allegheny County Courthouse, in December 2005 for $925,000.
She did so with the intent of converting the nine-story structure into condominiums during the first wave of residential building Downtown. She used some of her own money to demolish parts of the interior to create open floor plates for the handful of condos planned.
But then the recession hit and two of the buyers Ms. Brubach had lined up for the units backed out. Another impediment was the lack of integral parking, which was never much of an issue in New York.
“Everybody wants parking in their building in Pittsburgh. I just didn’t anticipate that,” she said.
By 2014, Ms. Brubach had changed course, ditching the condos in favor a 104-room boutique hotel with three bars and a brasserie-style restaurant.
She secured a $2.5 million state grant for the $38 million project and hoped to have the hotel completed by September 2016.
But like the condo endeavor, her timing proved to be less than impeccable. She launched the project in the midst of a hotel boom Downtown when more than 1,000 rooms were either under construction or in the pipeline.
That made bankers skittish, even as Ms. Brubach tried to sell her independent hotel as an alternative to the cookie-cutter chain brands moving into the city’s core.
“We couldn’t get the banks to buy in. All they were paying attention to were daily rate and occupancy. All of those numbers were going down,” she said. “That was a case of poor timing, I think.”
Ms. Brubach poured some of her own retirement savings into the project but could do so no more. With the banks refusing to budge, she decided to list the property for sale.
The Granite Building, built in 1889-90 to house the German National Bank and to serve immigrants, is being marketed by the Cushman & Wakefield/Grant Street Associates real estate firm.
After being listed for about two weeks, it already is attracting considerable interest, not only from potential local buyers but others as far away as New York and Vancouver, said John Jackson, the Cushman & Wakefield senior vice president handling the sale.
“We’ve gotten bonafide legitimate offers for the property,” he said. “I don’t think any of the offers we’ve received have been bad. I feel good about them.”
At the same time, he and Ms. Brubach will take their time in sorting through offers, saying it is still early in the process.
“I need to sell this, obviously, for personal financial reasons but it’s not a fire sale,” Ms. Brubach said.
Mr. Jackson said those who have expressed interest so far see potential residential, hospitality, or office uses for the building. “I think it will end being a residential or hospitality user,” he said.
Sadly, those are the same two avenues Ms. Brubach had explored.
She is now back to writing, with a book project to keep her busy. She’s ready to close the book on her foray into development.
“This experience has cost me a lot,” Ms. Brubach said. “It would give me pause before I would step in and buy another property, I think.”
Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
First Published: August 23, 2019, 11:30 a.m.
Updated: August 23, 2019, 11:49 a.m.