Final beam placed at FNB Financial Center

During a ceremony Thursday, officials placed the final construction beam atop the 26-story FNB Financial Center, the anchor of a redevelopment effort at the former Civic Arena site in Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood.

Construction at the FNB Financial Center began in September 2021 and is slated to be finished next year.

The $220 million tower, at the corner of Washington Place and Bedford Avenue, will serve as the bank’s new headquarters.

The project is about 60% complete, according to information provided by the development team. Vincent Delie, chairman, president and CEO of F.N.B. Corp. and First National Bank, said they were moving ahead on time and on budget.

He touted the development’s efforts to include minority- and women-owned businesses — and particularly businesses based in the Hill District.

“That was important to us, giving back to the community,” he said.

The project has awarded $25.2 million in contracts to Black-owned businesses and $8.6 million to women-owned businesses. Minority workers have worked 43,000 hours onsite, the development team said.

Delie said the bank is investing in the community even beyond their own building, including a $1.1 million investment into the Hill District Federal Credit Union and $7.8 million into the Greater Hill District Neighborhood Reinvestment Fund.

The top priority, City Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle said, should be to ensure the development helps bring economic prosperity to Hill District residents and the community at large.

He said the next step should be ensuring that Hill District businesses and residents get permanent jobs once the building is complete. He cited as an example a Hill District woman who has said she’d like her small cleaning company to get a contract there.

“All these little things add up to meaningful change for the community,” Lavelle said.

The Lower Hill redevelopment effort, which has been spearheaded by the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buccini/Pollin Group, is meant to be a “transformational project” for the Hill District, said Kevin Acklin, president of business operations for the Penguins. He said it was important to the development team that they include Hill District residents and focus on the broader impact the development of the FNB site and future elements at the former Civic Arena site could have.

“This is not just about building buildings,” he said. “It’s about rebuilding a neighborhood and investing in people.”

Chris Buccini, president of the Buccini/Pollin Group, said he believed the development could have a positive impact on generations of Hill District residents. He acknowledged that the development is working to remedy the “history of displacement” the Hill District experienced when residents and businesses were displaced for the Civic Arena project.

In a press conference held before crews lifted the final beam into place, Buccini credited the community members and registered community organizations who have worked to make their voices heard in the project and who “fought to make this a better project.”

“The beam is lifted today on the back of decades of effort from this community,” he said.

Buccini said he felt the new FNB Financial Center was a model for how such buildings could foster post-pandemic work. He said he wanted the building to be a “a place where people come together to collaborate” and a place “where people come to be part of something very much bigger.”

“I think it represents the future of Pittsburgh,” he said.

It marks the first high-rise commercial development of its kind since the covid-19 pandemic struck, according to Jake Pawlak, director of the city’s Office of Management and Budget. He called it a “sign of our rebound” from the pandemic.

Amachi Ackah, managing partner at Clay Cove Capital, which is an equity investor in the project, said it was significant that the financial institution chose to move its headquarters to the Hill District.

“I see this tower as a beacon of hope,” Ackah said. “With this tower, I hope that we can inspire. I hope that one day, a young person from the Hill District will be a CEO of a company with its offices on the top of this tower.”

Curtis Morehead said he feels like that’s already coming to fruition for him in a way. He grew up in the Hill District and now is co-founder of Emerald Electrical Services, which has performed electrical work on the FNB Financial Center.

“This was an amazing place to live and grow in the Hill District of Pittsburgh,” he said.

The FNB Financial Center is the first piece of a larger development effort at the former Civic Arena site.

Developers recently got approval to move ahead with the construction of a 4,500-seat entertainment venue — which will be operated by Live Nation and will include commercial space and a ballroom — and a six-story parking garage that will house a public safety facility.

Related:

• First National Bank wants to take a spot on Pittsburgh's skyline

• Hill District Federal Credit Union gets $1.1 million from FNB

• $2 ticket surcharge at planned entertainment venue would support Hill District revitalization