It was a mere two-and-a-half weeks ago that we told you of media reports that PNC, the banking behemoth, was evaluating its “strategy” to repurpose 500 Smithfield Street in downtown Pittsburgh.
And as we also reminded you, that was the grand old Mellon Bank building that, 24 years ago, the Murphy administration gutted and, using $11.8 million of taxpayer money, repurposed into a swank Lord & Taylor department store.
It was a disaster of Titanic proportions, of course, a true stinker of a sinker.
PNC, a taxpayer sucker fish in its own right, bought the building for $3.5 million in 2012, restored it to much of its original grandeur and turned it into a call center.
The COVID-19 pandemic emptied a facility that once employed 800 people; it has been empty since. This summer, PNC started shopping 500 Smithfield Street. Reports had it that it was even considering donating it to the right taker.
Last month, we cautioned against any public money being confiscated for any PNC “repurposing” as a matter of principle. After all, 500 Smithfield has been a money pit. And PNC, at one other property in particular, had no qualms about waddling its big belly up to the public trough.
That said, definitive word came last week that PNC wants to sell the building outright. No asking price was disclosed. And PNC says it is working with the Astorino Consulting Group.
But given the state of Downtown real estate, no one should feign surprise if 500 Smithfield is a tough sell, selling at all or, perhaps, going for a bargain-basement price.
And that’s an even better argument for there being absolutely no taxpayer dollars involved in any sale or in any changes the new owner seeks to make to the facility.
As we’ve being saying for decades, and as we’ll keep saying: Taxpayers have no business being involuntarily turned into venture capitalists for private businesses.
And as we’ve repeatedly noted, confiscating precious taxpayer dollars in the name of making such sales, repurposings and/or rehabilitations “more affordable” is oxymoronic.
500 Smithfield deserves no more taxpayer subsidies. It deserved none from the start. And this dog’s hunting days for public handouts should be over.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
