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Phone: 412-281-8731
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The Elmhurst Group
One Bigelow Square, Suite 630
Pittsburgh, PA 15219

A Brief History of Elmhurst
The Elmhurst Group of Companies was formed in 1974 in Pittsburgh as an investment vehicle for the Hunt family. The Hunts are longstanding members of the Pittsburgh business community. Captain Alfred E. Hunt co-founded the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) in Pittsburgh in the late l9th century.

Elmhurst's initial investments were primarily in real estate and spread throughout the United States. In 1978, it acquired The Bigelow Apartments. This became the Company's largest individual asset and required day to day management. Once the management team was in place, the Company assembled a portfolio of other Western Pennsylvania properties. The acquisitions were diverse: apartment buildings, both large and small, industrial park properties, retail centers and an investment in the supermarket business.

The Company's main focus during this time was the conversion of The Bigelow Apartments into a full service hotel. This process took years and a significant investment to come to fruition. In 1988 the Company entered into a franchise agreement with Ramada that finally gave change to the property's identity. Since the original franchise was acquired, many more improvements have been made to the property, including the addition of a 15,000 square foot conference center, renovation for the Downtown Athletic Club, modernization of the building elevators and many system improvements to better serve the guests of the hotel. In 2005 Elmhurst entered into a franchise with Hilton Hotels Corporation and invested $12 million in building improvements. The hotel’s grand opening as the Doubletree Hotel Pittsburgh City Centre was held in 2005.

As the 1980s came to an end, the Company decided to eliminate its apartment properties and their management from its holdings. Its acquisition strategy would include retail, warehouse/ distribution, office properties and the acquisition and subdivision of land for seven single family home developments.

Since the late 1980s, Elmhurst has also diversified its portfolio by investing in operating companies such as a retail grocery business, a health maintenance organization, oil and gas investments, and electronic security. The current investment is the Nashville, Tennesee-based ADS Security, which has grown to be the 25th largest security company in the country. ADS has “rolled up” over 16 regional alarm companies throughout Tennesee, Alabama and Georgia.

In the last decade, Elmhurst has continued to acquire new properties, including the Contraves Building on Epsilon Drive in the O'Hara Township RIDC, Valleybrook Shops on Route 19 in Peters Township, the St. Clair Shopping Center on Bower Hill Road, Mt. Lebanon and the 130,000 square foot ADVO Building located in the RIDC Park West.

Another of Elmhurst’s ventures is the development of the Airside Business Park on the site of the former Pittsburgh Airport's parking lots in Moon Township. The Park, which includes an attractive courtyard, clock tower and fountain, consists of five buildings, three state-of-the-art office and two flex-use buildings.

Additional projects include McClaren Woods Business Park in Findlay Township and the RAND Building in the City of Pittsburgh. McClaren Woods consists of five buildings utilizing a com-bination of office, flex, manufacturing and warehouse space. Four buildings are completed, with three fully occupied. The RAND Corporation Building at Fifth Avenue and Craig Street in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh was occupied in January 2006. This six-story 107,000 square foot office building is a glass and concrete structure with three floors of underground parking and contains high-speed elevators and fiber optics. RAND Corporation occupies 60,000 square feet on the top three floors; other tenants include The Bank of New York Mellon and TIAA-CREF.

Elmhurst next added One North Shore to its portfolio. This five-story 97,000 square foot riverfront office building is located in a park setting immediately across from PNC Park with an outstanding view of the Allegheny River and downtown Pittsburgh.

Elmhurst also recently purchased and renovated William Penn Plaza, a 120,000 sq.ft. first-class office building in Monroeville. In addition, also in Monroeville, Elmhurst developed a 180,000 sq.ft. facility for Bechtel Corporation. Finally, Elmhurst will soon begin construction of Schenley Place, a 91,000 square foot first-class office building in Pittsburgh near the University of Pittsburgh.

By the early 2000s, Elmhurst made a decision to discontinue its housing development division and sell all its retail divisions so it could focus on the Company’s proven strength – office and industrial real estate.

As it currently sits, The Elmhurst Group has 30 buildings on 18 sites totaling over 2.5 million square feet of office, warehouse and retail space, along with investments in several operating businesses including the 25th largest security firm in the United States.