PITTSBURGH — The Richard King Mellon Foundation is moving out of the downtown building that shares part of its name to take the second-floor auction house space at the Strip District Terminal, according to an announcement.
With its lease at BNY Mellon Center set to expire next year, the foundation inked a deal with Chicago-based McCaffery to lease the 18,000-square-foot auction house floor at the terminal for 15 years.
It’s a relatively rare office move in the messy aftermath of the pandemic of a tenant opting to expand its office presence yet the second move of its kind in the last few weeks from BNY Mellon Center.
RK Mellon will move from 10,000 square feet in the Grant Street building for the new 18,000-square-foot office address at 21st Street and Smallman in the Strip, with the added space expected to allow the 10-employee foundation to be able to host larger meetings related to its grantmaking.
Sam Reiman, director of the Richard King Mellon Foundation, said the new lease at the terminal comes after a rigorous search of downtown properties to determine what location might best advance our strategic goals,” further characterizing the impending move as a component of the organization’s strategic plan.
In a prepared statement, he added: “We wanted space that would help us to retain our talented employees and attract new ones. We sought a space that was constructed or renovated with ‘green’ building standards, to reflect our commitment to conservation. And, ideally, we wanted a space with a history that reflects our founder’s commitment to free enterprise.”
The terminal redevelopment met those needs in a LEED Silver-designated building that’s also a redevelopment of a historic property.
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