Rob Richter understands how to find business opportunity, applying site selection logic to a fully cleared site of more than nine acres tucked amid the tree-covered hills of the city’s West End.
It’s there that Richter, a senior vice president of development and investments for suburban Chicago-based Becknell Industrial, and his colleagues made the decision to buy a half-finished industrial redevelopment on Beechnut Drive in the city’s Fairywood neighborhood from a joint venture of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh and RIDC, a deal announced in March at a price of $25.5 million for a site that totals around 25 acres.
With a Ferguson operation bustling with activity in the first building built by the RIDC-URA joint venture, Richter and Becknell are now underway on building 217 Beechnut Drive, slated to be a 150,340-square-foot light industrial building expected to be available for lease early next year.
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