Smith’s Pittsburgh Business Times Viewpoint: We should put more support behind innovation
“Let’s support and promote what we are good at to solve problems not just across the region, or across the country, but around the world,”- RIDC President Donald Smith for Pittsburgh Business Times.
Stabilizing the Real Estate Market Post-COVID-19
Pittsburgh Business Times article by RIDC President Donald Smith can be read in full here. “As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, and a lengthy recession looks like a strong possibility, real estate development is going to grind to a halt. We can begin creating the conditions that will facilitate its re-emergence now, but it will require […]
RIDC Annual Report 2019
Check out our annual report to see 2019 in review.
What does Pittsburgh’s future look like after the pandemic?
Pittsburgh Business Times article by RIDC President Donald Smith. To read the article in full, click here. “As gloomy as things look through the coronavirus fog and as horrific a human toll as the virus may take, there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic about our economic future.”
National Real Estate Investor: How to Ensure Your Brownfield Project Is a Successful, Worthwhile Undertaking
Check out the article “How to Ensure Your Brownfield Project Is a Successful, Worthwhile Undertaking” written by RIDC President Donald Smith for National Real Estate Investor. Excerpt: For developers willing to rise to the challenge, the recipe for success is this: have the tenacity, patience and balance sheet that will support you for extended periods […]
RIDC President: The Good News About Brownfield Redevelopment’s Long Time Horizon
Article can be read in full here. “The strong economy and building booms that have taken place in many parts of the country in the past decade have prompted widespread development of new projects, but properties that are clean, shovel ready, primed for construction and for which there is a clear market, are always at […]
Mon Valley Ripe With Economic Development Potential
Discussing the Mon Valley, RIDC President Donald Smith was a panelist at Friday’s Pittsburgh Business Time’s Corridors of Opportunity luncheon. The perception of the Mon Valley hasn’t kept up with what’s really happening there—the corridor has experienced significant growth. Ripe with economic development potential, the Mon Valley is a great location for companies looking for […]
What’s Old Is New: Mill 19 Development in Hazelwood Shows Pittsburgh’s Transformation
Mill 19 is the cover story What’s Old Is New!, in the September issue of the Pittsburgh Tech Council’s TEQ magazine, and RIDC President Donald Smith has the Last Word with his article: “Speed Drives the Tech Economy – And Tech Company Location Decisions.”
President’s Message in Developing Pittsburgh Magazine: Developing Leaders & Public Policy
If you haven’t already, check out the latest issue of Developing Pittsburgh Magazine and RIDC & NAIOP Pittsburgh President Donald Smith’s opening letter to the commercial real estate community in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Will Your Project Get Built? Working With Communities to Gain Support for Development
The latest insights from RIDC President Donald Smith published by Real Estate Business in his article “Will Your Project Get Built? Working With Communities to Gain Support for Development.” Also republished in Northeast Real Estate Business August/September print issue:
Working with Communities to Earn a Welcoming Reception
Understanding a community’s dynamics and getting its leaders and residents invested in a company’s location plans will lead to a successful project and long-term benefits for all, writes RIDC President Donald Smith in a recent article for Area Development. Companies and developers need to go directly to the community to lay out project plans and […]
Earning & Leveraging Community Support for New Development Projects
RIDC President Donald Smith pens article for National Real Estate Investor Magazine on earning and leveraging community support for new development projects. “Navigating the public approval process for large-scale, transformational real estate projects can be challenging for developers, especially with community residents, community organizations and governmental entities making different, sometimes conflicting requests, which may or […]
How We Can Be Partners of Growth of Pittsburgh’s Tech Industry
Article by President Don Smith for the Nov./Dec. 2018 issue of Breaking Ground. The issue can be read in its entirety here.
Drawing a Maturing Urban Workforce Outside the Central Business District
If a company wants to succeed in drawing — and retaining — a maturing urban workforce to urban fringe communities and beyond, it needs to focus on a location’s quality of life, high-level amenities, and sense of community. President Don Smith writes on this subject for Area Development: Drawing a Maturing Urban Workforce Outside the Central […]
How To Spot a Region’s Next Emerging Hot Spot
GlobeSt.com/Real Estate Forum article by RIDC President Donald Smith:
What Property Owners Outside CBDs Can Do To Attract Expanding Industries
“Start-ups and rapidly growing, early stage companies, especially those in exploding new industries like robotics and artificial intelligence, are typically attracted to space that’s centrally located within a city or is near its universities. Nevertheless, city center space is finite and often expensive. While this poses a challenge for young companies that need space that […]
Mill 19: An Industrial Hallmark of Pittsburgh’s Past, Present and Future
“With revival and reuse plans well underway, Mill 19 is becoming more than a reminder of Pittsburgh’s bygone industrial steel era. Steel beam by steel beam, it is being transformed into an industrial hallmark of the city’s, and the country’s, present and future economic growth and prosperity,” says RIDC President Donald Smith in his article […]
President Viewpoint: An agenda for growing Pittsburgh’s innovation economy
Considerations for growing and supporting Pittsburgh’s innovation economy outlined in Pittsburgh Business Times’ viewpoint by RIDC President Donald Smith.
Demand Rises for Emerging Tech-Flex Sector
President Donald Smith writes about the emerging tech-flex sector for the latest issue of Real Estate Finance & Investment Magazine. Tech Forge photos by Elliott Cramer and courtesy of Desmone Architects.
Building A Robotics Future in Pittsburgh
TEQ Magazine article “Building A Robotics Future In Pittsburgh From An Industrial Past” takes a look at the burgeoning robotics industry in the city from a commercial real estate perspective. Written by RIDC President Donald Smith, the article can be viewed on page 44 of the June issue or on page 23 of the digital […]
Pittsburgh Developer Taps into Emerging Flex-Industrial Sector
“Pittsburgh-based RIDC…is seeing a new type of property emerge in its core Pennsylvania markets: high-amenity flexible office-industrial space,” says Samantha Rowan in her recent article for Real Estate Finance & Investment Magazine. “The company, which works with a number of robotics-focused companies that include Carnegie Robotics, is seeing strong tenant demand for bicycle-friendly spaces with high-end coffee […]
