WSJ on Pgh Real Estate

From today's Wall Street Journal, this story about Pittsburgh's flat commercial real estate market. An excerpt:

The dollar volume of office sales in Pittsburgh has lagged behind nearby cities like Baltimore and Philadelphia and prices have stayed low, according to Real Capital Analytics, a New York research firm. The region's office space sold at an average price of $71 a square foot in 2004 compared with the national average of $165 a square foot.

Some investors are betting Pittsburgh's fortunes will improve. Earlier this year the New York-based Blackstone Group bought the 32-story Dominion Tower in downtown Pittsburgh for $73 a square foot at a sheriff's sale. "There was an opportunity to acquire a trophy asset at a substantial discount to replacement cost in a market showing signs of a modest recovery," Blackstone managing director Frank Cohen wrote in an email.