Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh's parcel values and sale prices are open data, but a 2007 county ordinance keeps owners' names out of them; the skyline's owners come from filings instead, and they show downtown office values falling hard: one tower written down by $24.6M in 2024, another appraised at $58.1M in 2017 and $17.5M in 2025.
8 buildings · 8 with an owner established · 26 sources · 6 tier B · 2 tier A · prepared 2026-10-13
Can you find out who owns it?
Pennsylvania records title by deed with the county, here Allegheny County's Department of Real Estate, and the realty transfer tax is paid on the stated price: 1% to the state plus 4% to the City and Pittsburgh School District. The County's assessment roll and every recorded sale since 2013, with price and address, are published free through the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center under a CC0 licence, but both files leave out owners' names because 'Ordinance 3478-07 prohibits public access to search assessment records by owner name'. The owner of a parcel is shown one address at a time on the County's Real Estate Portal, which opens only after an 'I Agree' disclaimer. So a reader can look a building up, but nobody can list who owns the city.
Is ownership public?An open dataset names the owner
Cost of one title searchOwner of record free, one parcel at a time, on the County Real Estate Portal after an 'I Agree' disclaimer (not clicked for this research). The Recorder's fee schedule could not be read: alleghenycounty.us returned Akamai 'Access Denied'
Bulk ownership dataNone published
Sale pricesEvery sale, with its address
1
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Steel Tower 600 Grant Street, Pittsburgh 2,336,270 sq ft · 64 floors |
Office | 600 GS Prop LP (sponsor: The 601W Companies) The 2021 CMBS term sheet: 'The borrower is 600 GS PROP LP', a Pennsylvania limited partnership; 'The borrower sponsor is 601W Companies', New York-based, which acquired the tower in 2011. Title vesting: fee. $200M whole loan plus $45M mezzanine (total $245M), appraised at $381.5M on 8 Apr 2021, maturing 1 June 2026. Occupancy 73.2% (Apr 2021); UPMC and US Steel the largest tenants. The trust's FY2025 10-K shows Greystone kept as special servicer for this loan alone; an 8-K moved that role to C-IV Asset Management from 1 Sept 2026. Whether the loan was repaid at maturity was not established. The 2011 price is not in any document opened. |
Private company | —B |
| BNY Mellon Center 500 Grant Street, Pittsburgh |
Office | 500 Grant Street Associates Limited Partnership (a wholly-owned MetLife, Inc. subsidiary) BNY Mellon's 2018 10-K: 'We lease under a long-term, triple net lease the entire 54-story office building at BNY Mellon Center, 500 Grant Street', under a lease of 29 Dec 2004 'between 500 Grant Street Associates Limited Partnership and The Bank of New York Mellon'. So the bank is the tenant, not the owner; it owns the 14-story 500 Ross Street next door. MetLife's Exhibit 21.1 lists 500 Grant Street Associates Limited Partnership (CT) and 500 Grant Street GP LLC among its wholly-owned active subsidiaries as of 12/31/25. The owner is tied to the tower through the lease exhibit, so tier B. No price was found. |
Public company | —B |
| PPG Place (One to Six PPG Place) One PPG Place, Pittsburgh |
Office | Highwoods Properties (Highwoods Realty LP) 100% Highwoods' FY2025 10-K Schedule III lists One, Two, Three, Four, Five and Six PPG Place under 'Pittsburgh, PA', built 1983-1985. One PPG Place has a gross carrying amount of $179.4M (land $9.8M), and the six buildings together $279.3M. PPG Industries is Highwoods' sixth-largest customer (370,927 sq ft). Pittsburgh is no longer one of Highwoods' named core markets: it falls in 'Other' (2.8M sq ft, 75.7% occupied). Schedule III gives initial cost, which is not a purchase price, and no price is recorded here. |
REIT | —A |
| The Tower at PNC Plaza 300 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh |
Office | PNC Bank, National Association 100% PNC's FY2025 10-K, Item 2: 'Our executive and primary administrative offices are currently located at The Tower at PNC Plaza, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The 33-story structure is owned by PNC Bank, National Association.' PNC Bank is the bank subsidiary of The PNC Financial Services Group. The bank developed the tower for its own use and did not buy it, so there is no purchase price. The 10-K cover gives the address as 300 Fifth Avenue. |
Public company | —A |
| Gulf Tower 707 Grant Street, Pittsburgh 400,000 sq ft (Post-Gazette); 435,491 sq ft (2017 CMBS appraisal comparable) · 44 floors |
Mixed use | Rugby Realty Post-Gazette, 23 Jan 2025: 'Rugby Realty is taking the first steps in its bid to convert the 44-story Gulf Tower into a luxury hotel and residential hub' with 225 apartments and 126 hotel rooms, a '$230 million project at 707 Grant St.', with New York-based Left Lane Development as partner. It also calls the Koppers Building 'also owned by Rugby' and the Frick Building 'another Grant Street landmark it owns'. The state put $10M of redevelopment capital grants into the conversion. A 2017 CMBS appraisal comparable (CGCMT 2017-P8) put it at 435,491 sq ft and 65% occupancy. No purchase price or deed was opened. |
Private company | —B |
| Acrisure Stadium North Shore, Pittsburgh 1.49M sq ft |
Civic | Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County 100% SEA 2024 audited statements: 'The Authority owns PNC Park, Acrisure Stadium …' and leases Acrisure Stadium to 'PSSI Stadium LLC (a related entity to the holder of the Pittsburgh Steelers National Football League franchise)', which operates it through 28 Feb 2031. The teams 'are responsible for the daily operation, management and maintenance'. The SEA's page gives 68,400 seats, a development cost of $263 million and a first game on 25 Aug 2001. Seats, cost and date are from the SEA's facility page. Public title, private lessee: the lease is in the related entity's name, not the team's. |
Government | —B |
| PNC Park North Shore, Pittsburgh 970,000 sq ft |
Civic | Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County 100% SEA 2024 audited statements: the Authority owns PNC Park and leases it to 'Pittsburgh Associates (holder of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball franchise)', which operates it through 31 Oct 2030. Ticket surcharge and rent from PNC Park were $2.8M in 2024. The SEA's page gives 38,496 seats, a development cost of $273.5 million and a first game on 9 Apr 2001. Seats and cost are from the SEA's facility page. The ballpark carries a bank's name, but PNC does not own it. |
Government | —B |
| PPG Paints Arena Fifth Avenue and Centre Avenue, Pittsburgh |
Civic | Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County 100% SEA page: 'The PPG Paints Arena is owned by the SEA and master leased to the Pittsburgh Penguins.' The 2024 statements say it is subleased through 30 June 2040 to Pittsburgh Arena Operating LP, 'a related entity to the holder of the Pittsburgh Penguins'. Cost $319.7M, of which $290M came from 30-year revenue bonds backed by $7.5M a year from the state, $7.5M from the Pittsburgh casino licence holder and $4.1M a year of Penguins rent. The old Civic Arena site next door (28 acres) is two-thirds SEA, one-third URA, under a Penguins-affiliate development option (2024 statements). |
Government | —B |
2
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
No assessed-value ranking can be built here: the County's 2012 base-year values sit behind the disclaimer, and the open file was not used. The figures below come from loan files and owners' filings instead, and they show how far downtown office values have fallen.
U.S. Steel Tower appraisal$381,500,000
Appraised value as of 8 Apr 2021, $163 per sq ft, 2,336,270 sq ft (BANK 2021-BNK34 term sheet). Loan of $200M plus $45M mezzanine, maturing 1 June 2026.
625 Liberty (formerly EQT Plaza) write-down$24.6M impairment (2024)
Highwoods' FY2025 10-K: impairment 'to lower the carrying amount of 625 Liberty (formerly known as EQT Plaza), a 616,000 square foot non-core building in CBD Pittsburgh'. The filing says the impairment 'resulted from a change in our assumptions about the use of the asset', with fair value estimated from a discounted cash flow and a broker's opinion of value. The Level 3 assets measured at fair value in Q4 2024, $26.7M, 'included 625 Liberty'. Its gross carrying amount was $112.1M in the FY2017 Schedule III and $54.1M in FY2025's.
Grant Building (310 Grant St) revaluation$58.1M (June 2017) to $17.5M (Apr 2025)
CGCMT 2017-P8: 461,006 sq ft, borrower McKnight Grant Building Associates LP, appraised $58.1M on 15 June 2017. Its 10-D of 17 Sept 2026 shows the loan in foreclosure since a special-servicing transfer on 18 Sept 2023, balance $34.8M, most recent value $17,500,000 (24 Apr 2025), appraisal reduction $22.4M.
Sports & Exhibition Authority land$126 million
SEA 2024 audited statements: capital assets $670M net, including land valued at $126M (not depreciated): the stadiums, arena, convention center, garages and Lower Hill land.
Realty transfer tax5% of price
Pittsburgh, City of / Pittsburgh School District 4%, plus the 1% Pennsylvania portion (Chicago Title chart, as of 21 Jan 2026). The tax is why a recorded sale carries its price.
3
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
The County will not release owners' names in bulk (Ordinance 3478-07), so no holder's parcels can be counted or summed from the roll, and every figure below is the holder's own statement. Public authorities hold the civic core. The Sports & Exhibition Authority owns all three major-league venues, the convention center and two-thirds of the Lower Hill. The URA holds more than 1,600 small properties, a third of them in the Hill District. Several large holders could not be given a sourced figure at all (see unverified).
| Name | Type | Holdings, as the holder states them |
|---|---|---|
| Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County Owns PNC Park, Acrisure Stadium, the David L. Lawrence Convention Center (1.5M sq ft and a $373M development cost, per the SEA's facility page) with its garage and riverfront plaza, PPG Paints Arena and garage, North Shore Garage and Riverfront Park, and 19 acres of the Lower Hill. It also holds the Benedum Center and Heinz History Center 'for financing purposes only'. The teams' related entities operate the venues under leases to 2030, 2031 and 2040. |
Government | $670M capital assets, incl. $126M land (2024)B |
| Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh By neighborhood: Hill District 558, Other 580, Homewood 185, Larimer 102, CBD 56, Garfield 40, Fairywood 33, Southside 31, South Side Works 28. The URA paid 'over $775,000 to local contractors for the care of over 1,200 lots owned by the URA', owns the Pittsburgh Technology Center and South Side Works garages, and holds a third of the 28-acre Lower Hill site. |
Government | 1,630 properties held for redevelopment ($9.0M at cost, 31 Dec 2025)A |
| Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh HACP: 'We currently house more than 18,000 Pittsburghers', in 'community settings, high rises and scattered sites around the City'. It says 'More than half of our residents live in privately-managed rental properties'. The page gives no land or parcel figure. |
Government | 2,200+ public housing units managed; 600+ mixed-finance units overseenA |
5
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
Pittsburgh city permits only a few hundred houses a year, and most new homes in the city are in apartment buildings. In 2025 its permits (11 months reported) covered 1,984 units, of which 1,905 were in 19 buildings of five or more units and 75 were single-family. Earlier years: 2,028 units (2022), 2,512 (2023) and 1,664 (2024), each mostly multifamily. Allegheny County as a whole permitted 3,191 units in 2025, 1,260 of them single-family. The county's single-family homes go up mostly outside the city, and the national builders here sell in suburban townships. No Pittsburgh builder league table exists, and the roll cannot be grouped by owner, so builder figures below are national closings from filings and Pro Builder, with each builder's Pittsburgh presence as its own documents state it.
| Name | Type | 2025 closings (national) |
|---|---|---|
| NVR, Inc. (Heartland Homes, Ryan Homes) NVR's FY2025 10-K: 'Heartland Homes operates in the Pittsburgh, PA metropolitan area'; Ryan Homes also operates in Pennsylvania, and Western Pennsylvania sits in NVR's Mid East segment ($1.88B revenue in 2025). NVR 'generally do[es] not engage in land development' and buys finished lots under purchase agreements, so it holds little land itself. Ranked 5th in Pro Builder's 2026 Top 200 ($10.09B housing revenue). |
Public company | 21,915 settlementsB |
| D.R. Horton D.R. Horton's FY2025 10-K lists Pittsburgh among its Pennsylvania markets, with Central Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. It is the largest U.S. builder by homes closed. No Pittsburgh-only figure is published. |
Public company | 84,863 homes closed (FY to 30 Sept 2025)A |
| Maronda Homes Pro Builder 2026 Top 200, rank 37: a private company (no 'p' flag). Its site lists 'All Pittsburgh Communities' in places such as Butler County, Canonsburg, Collier Township, Fox Chapel, Imperial, Jefferson Hills and Moon. These are suburbs, not the city (Maronda's own site). A Pittsburgh-only figure is not published. |
Private company | 2,317 closings; $1,025,000,000 revenueB |
6
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
Downtown towers are held by out-of-town owners through single-purpose entities, and the names come from SEC filings because the County will not list them. Highwoods, a REIT, no longer counts Pittsburgh among its core markets and took a $24.6M impairment on a second, 625 Liberty. MetLife owns BNY Mellon Center, and the bank only leases it. CMBS loans on the U.S. Steel Tower and the Grant Building are in special servicing.
| Name | Type | Pittsburgh holding |
|---|---|---|
| Highwoods Properties FY2025 10-K Schedule III. PPG Place gross carrying amount $279.3M across six buildings. 625 Liberty was written down $24.6M in 2024. In Q1 2025 Highwoods sold 'land in Pittsburgh', in sales that also included three Tampa buildings and totalled $146.3M. Pittsburgh is in its 'Other' bucket (2.8M sq ft, 75.7% occupied). |
REIT | One to Six PPG Place, plus 625 Liberty (616,000 sq ft)A |
| MetLife, Inc. (500 Grant Street Associates LP) Owner-lessor of the whole tower, which is triple-net leased to The Bank of New York Mellon under a lease of 29 Dec 2004 (BNY 2018 10-K). The LP is a wholly-owned MetLife subsidiary (Exhibit 21.1, as of 12/31/25). |
Public company | BNY Mellon Center, 54 floorsB |
| The 601W Companies (600 GS Prop LP) New York-based sponsor, which says it owns and manages 21M sq ft nationally (2021 term sheet). It acquired the tower in 2011. The loan's special servicer changed on 1 Sept 2026 (BANK 2021-BNK35 8-K). |
Private company | U.S. Steel Tower, 2,336,270 sq ftB |
| Rugby Realty Post-Gazette, Jan 2025: New Jersey-based Rugby owns the Koppers Building and the Frick Building ('another Grant Street landmark it owns') and is converting Gulf Tower to 225 apartments and a 126-room hotel. It is also planning 70 apartments at 933 Penn. |
Private company | Gulf Tower, Koppers Building, Frick BuildingA |
| McKnight Realty Partners (McKnight Grant Building Associates LP) Pittsburgh-based borrower sponsor in the 2017 CMBS loan, which says it owns 'more than 5.0 million square feet of commercial space nationwide'. The loan was in foreclosure in Sept 2026. Whether title has since passed was not established. |
Private company | Grant Building, 461,006 sq ftA |
| PNC Bank, National Association Owner-occupier: 'The 33-story structure is owned by PNC Bank, National Association' (FY2025 10-K). PNC's name on PNC Park is sponsorship only: the SEA owns the ballpark. |
Public company | The Tower at PNC Plaza, 33 floorsA |
?
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- Owner counts for the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pittsburgh Public Schools, the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, UPMC, Allegheny Health Network/Highmark, Pittsburgh Regional Transit, PWSA, U.S. Steel, CSX and Norfolk Southern. The County's open files omit owner names by ordinance, the per-parcel portal is behind an 'I Agree' disclaimer that was not accepted, and the city and county websites refused automated access (Akamai). Pitt's campus-boundary report is behind a login, and the pages opened for CMU and UPMC give no land figure. None is given a figure rather than a guessed one.
- U.S. Steel's own Pittsburgh landholding. Its headquarters is a tenant in the U.S. Steel Tower (232,479 sq ft in 2021, per the CMBS term sheet), and its mills are outside the city limits. No filing opened here states a holding inside the city.
- Whether the U.S. Steel Tower loan ($245M including mezzanine) was repaid at its 1 June 2026 maturity. Filings show a dedicated special servicer for this loan (Greystone, then C-IV Asset Management from 1 Sept 2026), but the 10-D detail for BANK 2021-BNK34 was not opened, so no default is claimed. The 2011 purchase price is reported elsewhere but was not in any document opened.
- BNY Mellon's lease at 500 Grant Street. Search results report that the bank is moving to 500 Ross Street and that its lease ends in 2028, but the Axios article returned 403 and the bank's FY2025 10-K property text was not found, so neither the move nor the lease end is stated here.
- K&L Gates Center (210 Sixth Ave): search results report a receivership sale in July 2026 and a $58.9M foreclosure judgment, but no court record, filing or article was opened.
- Rugby Realty's reported March 2025 purchase of One Oxford Centre: not in any document opened, so it is not counted.
- Sheriff's-sale volumes and below-prior sales from the County's sales file. The sales data (CC0) sits behind WPRDC's click-through Data Use Agreement, and the sheriff's-sale pages are on alleghenycounty.us (Akamai block). Distress is shown instead from CMBS servicer reports and REIT impairments.
- PPG Place's purchase price. Highwoods' Schedule III gives initial cost ($117.5M for One PPG Place: land $9.8M plus building $107.6M), which is not a price, so no price is given.
- Pittsburgh metro (CBSA 38300) totals are missing from the Census CBSA annual file read here, so only county and city permit figures are given.
- The Allegheny County Department of Real Estate's recording fees and deed-search terms could not be read (alleghenycounty.us returned Akamai 'Access Denied').
- Nareit and CoStar-type landlord rankings remain paywalled or blocked (national pack gaps), so the commercial list is built from SEC filings and CMBS loan files.
§
Sources
- Allegheny County Property Assessments (dataset page: CC0 licence; 'Excludes name and contact information for property owners, as required by Ordinance 3478-07'), read 13 Oct 2026 — Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center (University of Pittsburgh UCSUR) / Allegheny County Office of Property Assessments · openA
- Real Estate Portal: Legal Disclaimer page with an 'I Agree' button (2012 base-year values; 'Sales prices are for the latest recorded sale') — Allegheny County Office of Property Assessments · registrationA
- BANK 2021-BNK34, free writing prospectus (structural and collateral term sheet): Loan #4, U.S. Steel Tower, 600 Grant Street — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- BANK 2021-BNK35, Form 10-K for 2025 (servicing of the U.S. Steel Tower mortgage loan) — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- BANK 2021-BNK35, Form 8-K of 1 Sept 2026 (C-IV Asset Management becomes special servicer for the U.S. Steel Tower loan) — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- Highwoods Properties, Form 10-K for 2025 (Schedule III: One to Six PPG Place and 625 Liberty; 625 Liberty impairment) — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- PNC Financial Services Group, Form 10-K for 2025 (Item 2: 'The 33-story structure is owned by PNC Bank, National Association') — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- Bank of New York Mellon Corp, Form 10-K for 2018 (Pittsburgh properties; Exhibit 10.25, lease of 29 Dec 2004 with 500 Grant Street Associates Limited Partnership) — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- MetLife, Inc., Form 10-K for 2025, Exhibit 21.1 (wholly-owned active subsidiaries as of 12/31/25, incl. 500 Grant Street Associates Limited Partnership (CT) and 500 Grant Street GP LLC (DE)) — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- '$230M Gulf Tower conversion starts' (Rugby Realty; Koppers and Frick buildings 'also owned by Rugby') — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (e-edition), Mark Belko · openA
- Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, audited financial statements for 2024 (MD&A and Note 1: facilities owned and leased) — Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County · openA
- SEA facility pages: PPG Paints Arena ('owned by the SEA and master leased to the Pittsburgh Penguins'), Acrisure Stadium, PNC Park, David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Lower Hill Redevelopment — Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County · openA
- Citigroup Commercial Mortgage Trust 2017-P8, free writing prospectus: Loan #9, Grant Building (310 Grant St), and downtown Pittsburgh office comparables — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- Citigroup Commercial Mortgage Trust 2017-P8, Form 10-D distribution report of 17 Sept 2026 (Grant Building: foreclosure, appraisal reduction, most recent value) — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- Allegheny County GIS: OPENDATA/Parcels map service (fields PIN, MAPBLOCKLOT, MUNICODE, CALCACREAGE; no owner field) — Allegheny County DCS-GIS · openA
- Building Permits Survey, county annual files co2021a to co2025a (Allegheny County, FIPS 42/003) — U.S. Census Bureau · openA
- Building Permits Survey, Northeast Region place annual files ne2021a to ne2025a (Pittsburgh city, place 61000) — U.S. Census Bureau · openA
- NVR, Inc., Form 10-K for 2025 ('Heartland Homes operates in the Pittsburgh, PA metropolitan area'; 21,915 settlements) — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- D.R. Horton, Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (markets list includes Pittsburgh; 84,863 homes closed) — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- The 2026 Top 200 Rankings: the largest home builders in the U.S. by 2025 housing revenue (with 2025 closings) — Pro Builder (SGC Horizon) · openA
- Maronda Homes, home page (communities menu: 'All Pittsburgh Communities') — Maronda Homes · openA
- Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, financial statements for 2025 (property held for redevelopment by neighborhood; lots maintained) — Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh · openA
- About HACP — Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh · openA
- Variations From 1% Local Transfer Tax, as of January 21, 2026 (Pittsburgh, City of / Pittsburgh School District 4%, plus 1% to PA) — Chicago Title Insurance Company, National Commercial Services Philadelphia · openA
- Highwoods Properties, Form 10-K for 2017 (Schedule III: EQT Plaza, gross carrying amount $112.1M) — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- Allegheny County Property Sale Transactions (dataset page: CC0; all parcels sold since 2013; 'Ordinance 3478-07 prohibits public access to search assessment records by owner name') — Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center / Allegheny County Department of Administrative Services, Real Estate Division · openA