URA, RIDC announce first tenant for $39M warehouse project in Pittsburgh's Fairywood

A $39 million project to build warehouses in Pittsburgh’s Fairywood neighborhood has landed its first tenant, according to the Regional Industrial Development Corp. of Southwestern Pennsylvania and the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority.

The RIDC and URA said this week that Ferguson Enterprises LLC, a plumbing, HVAC and industrial product distributor, signed a lease to locate in a 150,000-square-foot warehouse that will be built in Fairywood.

“We have been eyeing Fairywood for several years because of the site’s superior centralized location in the Pittsburgh market,” said George Schraudt, Ferguson’s senior facility development manager. “Our new modern distribution facility will serve as the area’s main branch and shipping hub, allowing us to better serve our customers in the local market and create more opportunities for our Pittsburgh associates.”

RIDC partnered with the URA in April to build warehouses on a 25-acre site in Fairywood that the URA acquired in 2011. The site was previously used for a housing development, but it was severely flooded during Hurricane Ivan. Because of the flooding issues in the location, the land can’t be used for housing again.

Construction of the first warehouse is expected to begin in November. Ferguson’s lease will begin once construction is completed, likely in late 2023. The second phase of work will bring a similarly sized warehouse to the site.

“It’s exciting to see how quickly this project is advancing since we signed the partnership agreement in April,” said Greg Flisram, executive director of the URA. “The URA looks forward to continuing our work with RIDC to attract more job-creating tenants to the site.”

Ferguson said the company expects to initially bring 50 jobs to the new warehouse facility, with hopes of having 85 to 100 jobs at the site by its fifth year.

“Ferguson’s occupancy will not only give the Fairywood site purpose again, after sitting vacant for more than 15 years. It will bring much-needed jobs to the community, and we hope that this new site actively spurs interest in phase two of this development,” said Tim White, RIDC’s senior vice president of business development and strategy.