Macy’s Leaving Historic Pittsburgh Locale

Macy’s Inc. (Cincinnati) has announced its departure from its historic Pittsburgh location at 400 Fifth Ave. to allow Core Reality (Philadelphia) to create a “major mixed-use redevelopment” in the building, according to a statement released by the company.

The building currently includes 1.2 million square feet and spans 13 floors, including a basement and sub-basement, as well as partial street-level and arcade floors. Macy’s has only used 475,000 square feet of the total selling space. The defunct department store chain, Kaufmann’s, was established in Pittsburgh in 1887 and formerly occupied the space. It was later acquired by The May Department Stores Company in 1946 and its nameplate changed to Macy’s in 2006.

In the statement released by the company, Jeff Kantor, Macy’s chief stores officer, explained that Macy’s had been challenged to find a purpose for the unused space on the upper floors.

The current Macy’s workforce in the downtown Pittsburgh area includes 170 employees, and due to the move, roughly 30 associates working in district offices on the 11th floor of the building will be relocated to another Macy’s store in the Pittsburgh area. The rest of the affected employees may be offered positions in nearby stores, while those laid off will be offered severance benefits.

According to the statement, going forward, the Macy’s workforce in Greater Pittsburgh will include 2450 employees.