Monroeville's former Westinghouse site to be restored

A restoration of the former Westinghouse Electric complex in Monroeville to its prior iconic state is planned by the firm that purchased the property last year.

The $18 million purchase by Next Tier Connect, a partnership of New York investment firms Next Tier HD and RedBird Capital Partners, is the firm’s first acquisition and will be branded as “Next Tier Connect - Pittsburgh East.”

The firm purchased the property in November, according to Allegheny County real estate records.

The complex, a 138-acre property at 4350 Northern Pike, has two four-story towers connected by a shared entrance and 2,100 parking spaces. In all, the buildings total 505,000 square feet.

Bank of New York Mellon is a current tenant at the site, along with AmeriSource Bergen and Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.

Around 206,000 square feet is available for lease in the East Tower.

Next Tier said in a news release new tenants had signed on but did not identify them. A representative of the firm could not immediately be reached.

The site includes three loading docks with levelers in a shipping and receiving area, an on-site Duquesne Light underground substation, a 5-megawatt standby generator plant and a 400-kilowatt emergency diesel generator.

“We look forward to executing on our expansion into the Pittsburgh market through the acquisition of this premier property. This is a world-class mixed-use mission critical campus, which we look forward to restoring to its prior iconic state,” said David Spiewak, Next Tier’s Managing Principal. “The acquisition represents the type of high-quality campuses the Next Tier Connect platform endeavors to own, operate and grow.”

The announcement did not offer specific construction plans for the site.

Next Tier HD, founded in 2012, invests in real estate, data center and mission critical ventures, capital restructuring and secondary debt market acquisitions, according to its website.

It is based in New York City with additional offices in Washington, D.C. and West Palm Beach, Fla.

RedBird focuses on “partnership investing,” which focuses on providing entrepreneurs “flexible, long-term capital … to help grow their businesses.” The firm has offices in New York and Dallas.

The firm boasts leading over $2 billion of equity and co-investments since its founding in 2014.

In its heyday, the Westinghouse Electric Co. headquarters had two office complexes in Monroeville and employed around 3,000 people. The offices moved to Cranberry Township in 2010.

LSREF4 Rebound LLC bought the property for $15.2 million in 2015 and put the property up for sale in 2017, according to county real estate records.

Monroeville officials pitched the site as a possible location for Amazon’s second headquarters in 2017. The online retail giant ended up splitting its HQ2 decision between New York and the Washington, D.C. area.