The $300 million FNB Financial Center, completed last fall, is the first multi-tenant office tower added to the downtown Pittsburgh skyline in 40 years. The 26-story building, measuring more than 470,000 square feet, serves as the new headquarters for FNB Corp., the holding company of First National Bank.
The financial services firm combined several of its North Shore office campuses in the new office development at 626 Washington Place, which some have called "the beating heart" of the city's Lower Hill District, a 28-acre site slated for redevelopment with entertainment venues and new homes to come.
Other tenants in the office tower, which is about 61% leased, include global accounting firm BDO USA, Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman PC, and GH Advertising.
The 26-story office tower is owned by an affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Pittsburgh Penguins and was developed by Delaware-based Buccini Pollin Group. In Pittsburgh, the tower is the latest in a long string of examples of companies ditching their older offices in favor of leasing in newer, better-amenitized buildings, even for less space than their previous office footprints.
Buccini Pollin Group led the expansive headquarters project in partnership with FNB, Philadelphia-based Clay Cove Capital and the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins, which owns the site's redevelopment rights.
A panel of local industry professionals clearly chose FNB Financial Center—with its connection to the community and commitment to sustainable design and construction by a diverse workforce—as the winner of the 2025 CoStar Impact Awards for new commercial development of the year in Pittsburgh.
The project, built on the former site of the Pittsburgh Civic Arena, known locally as the Igloo, has received significant federal, state, and local economic incentives. The project championed community reinvestment, with $50 million in contracts awarded to minority- and women-owned businesses.
About the project: FNB owns and occupies most of the building, bringing employees together in a new, state-of-the-art space designed to encourage communication and collaboration between lines of business. The FNB Financial Center will anchor and be a catalyst for an expected $1 billion in economic expansion in the Lower Hill District and surrounding region. FNB has committed more than $235 million to the local community.
Architect Gensler designed the building, which features floor-to-ceiling glass windows and has attained LEED Gold certification. A sophisticated trading floor for Capital Markets employees includes a suspended LED stock ticker visible from the building's exterior.
What the judges said: "It is hard to top the addition of the building to the city's skyline, but the positive impact extends deeper into the community," said Amy Broadhurst, president and principal of Lee & Associates of Western Pennsylvania.
UPDATED They made it happen: The development team behind the new office tower was led by Vincent Delie, chairman and president of FNB; Chris Buccini, founder of Buccini/Pollin Group; Boris Kaplan, senior vice president for development management with Buccini/Pollin Group; Amachie Ackah, co-founder, chief investment officer and managing partner at Clay Cove Capital; Wesley Schwandt, president of BPGS Construction; Daniel Lavelle, president of the Pittsburgh City Council; Kevin Acklin, president of the Pittsburgh Penguins; and JC Pelusi, market director at JLL.