PITTSBURGH — The U.S. Steel Tower, Pittsburgh's tallest skyscraper, has been sold to an investment group led by New York investor Mark Karasick for a reported $250 million. The seller was an investment group led by AREA Property Partners. The story was reported in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
The investment group procured a $220 million conduit loan to help fund the transaction. The financing carries a 10-year term and was provided by Swiss bank UBS. The team of Rael Gervis and Ralph Herzka of Meridian Capital Group arranged the loan.
According to local reports, the seller will use the proceeds from the deal to pay off the mortgage on the property it owes to Bank of America. AREA put the tower up for sale following its failure to negotiate a debt restructuring with the lender last fall.
The U.S. Steel Tower is a 64-story building located at 600 Grant St. in downtown Pittsburgh. It contains a total of 2.9 million square feet of office space as well as a 700-space, three-level underground parking garage and street-level retail space. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center anchors the building. It currently occupies approximately 513,000 square feet of space currently and recently signed a lease to expand by an additional 270,000 square feet. Other major tenants include U.S. Steel, which maintains its 450,000-square-foot corporate headquarters in the tower, and PNC Bank, which occupies 430,000 square feet. CB Richard Ellis, which currently leases the property, lists only 18,764 square feet of space being available in the tower.
— Coleman Wood