Pittsburgh Water buys Crucible Building for new headquarters in Strip District

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Water, the public authority responsible for the city’s water supply, has completed a big-ticket real estate buy of the Crucible Building in the Strip District, which will become its new headquarters next year.

The institution formerly known as the Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority closed on its acquisition of the repurposed steel mill at the end of last week, paying a little more than $25.26 million to Shadyside-based Schreiber Real Estate for a 110,000-square-foot mill building at 3011 Smallman Street, which translates to more than $229 a square foot.

The deal marks the first time the authority will own instead of lease its headquarters office as it nears the end of the lease term of its current offices at Penn Liberty Plaza One, a property in the Strip adjacent to downtown owned by the Buncher Co.