BNY to move into new facility by ’27

BNY will move all of its employees out of Downtown’s BNY Mellon Center and into its former operations center just steps away by 2027, company representatives said Thursday.

The shift, while cementing Pittsburgh as one of the company’s six major global hubs, could leave the Golden Triangle’s second-tallest building near vacant — a major blow to its property tax base.

BNY has maintained a presence in Pittsburgh for over 150 years. But the company’s lease at BNY Mellon Center, a 56-story skyscraper at 500 Grant St., ends in 2028, and the company in 2023 announced its move to the former service center at 500 Ross St.

As the building’s makeover began last year, employees started moving in.

“By the time we’re here, there is going to be nobody on the other side,” BNY chief administrative officer Alejandro Perez said during a media tour of the new facility Thursday.

BNY today has a larger presence here than in any other U.S. City, Mr. Perez said.

“[This] gives the people that we hire into Pittsburgh an opportunity to work across the entire organization — and to do so from here if they want to,” BNY Pennsylvania Managing Director and Chairman Eric Boughner said.

BNY is using five floors in the 14-story Ross Street building. Half of the 700,000-square-foot structure will be fully remodeled by the end of 2025, Mr. Perez said.

It’s a significant downsizing: BNY occupied most of the 1 million-square-foot BNY Mellon Center.

The new campus will feature renovated office floors, a fitness center and an amenities hub. It’s expected to be completed this summer, and will feature a coffee bar, rooftop terrace, and two indoor event reception rooms.

BNY has leaned into artificial intelligence with the move.

The company is now the largest employer of Carnegie Mellon University AI masters program grads, with 43 employees. Some are already working out of the Ross Street building, divisional Chief Information Officer and President of BNY Pennsylvania Mike Keslar said.

BNY officials said that the renovations will bring workers back to the office, reversing pandemic-era remote work trends.

COVID-19 “gave us the impetus — we want to make this space really attractive,” Mr. Perez said.

“But it’s not just the pandemic — it’s the fact that when we want to attract the best talent, whether its CMU or [the University of Pittsburgh] or any other universities, you have to have an experience that attracts these talents.”

BNY said the building will be completed by the fourth quarter of 2027, but company reps said they’re trying to push that date up, with Mr. Perez’s “ambitious goal” being the end of 2026.

Meanwhile, the fate of BNY Mellon Center could be the biggest crisis facing Downtown, real estate analysts say.

Building owner MetLife has struggled to extend or cut new leases from current tenants. UBS is ready to move into the U.S. Steel Tower, CBRE Vice Chairman Jeremy Kronman said. And in June, law firm Fox Rothschild — which has about 30,000 square feet in the center — intends to leave. Jones Day law firm — the center’s largest remaining tenant, spread across nearly 70,000 square feet — recently expressed interest in One Oxford Center, property owner and Rugby Realty head Aaron Stauber said.

“BNY Center … contains 10% of Downtown’s class A space, so its fate will always have a significant effect on our market,” said Dan Adamski, executive managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle real estate firm. Mr. Adamski brokered Fox Rothschild’s deal to move out of the center.

But the building is not suitable for an office-to-residential conversion, experts say, meaning it could be cheaper for MetLife to simply maintain an empty building rather than upgrade it.

MetLife could not be immediately reached for comment.

High-profile buildings in the Golden Triangle have undergone steep assessment cuts amid high vacancy rates and a major change in the county’s calculation of taxable value.

That’s a cause for concern in City Hall — Downtown represents a quarter of Pittsburgh’s tax base.

“There’s just a very wide gulf between the haves and the have nots,” Mr. Kronman said.