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Short-term rentals coming to Pittsburgh's historic Pennsylvanian

Short-term rentals coming to Pittsburgh's historic Pennsylvanian
Short-term rentals coming to Pittsburgh's historic Pennsylvanian 01:30

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — The Pennsylvanian in Downtown Pittsburgh will welcome some short-term rentals. The building owner is partnering with a company that has had a desire to get involved in Pittsburgh.

The architecture of the building, which dates to the turn of the 20th century, takes you right back to its roots as the city's train station. 

"It's the historic Union Station of Pittsburgh. It's got a ton of heritage, history. It has a soul," Placemakr CEO and co-founder Jason Fudin said.

He said his company has been looking to get into the Pittsburgh area for the last couple of years. Fudin credits the city for having what he calls great fundamentals. Their partnership with the building owners started this week.

"Core business market. It's got a lot of leisure, and it's got a great residential tenant base," Fudin said.

One-third of the building will be short-term rentals and the remaining apartments will stay just that. The idea is to make these short-term rentals a place where people can find a feeling of home when on the road. They will convert apartments as they become available. For renters, Fudin said their leases will not change. In the next 90 days, they should see some hospitality services come in place for them.

"You can text us and have someone turn your room and give you linen service. All of the dry cleaning, pet care. Those are all services that we make available to the folks that live in the building," Fudin said.

Placemakr has done this with other buildings in D.C., New York City, Texas and Nashville. The hope is over the next 12 to 18 months they get all the rooms they need for the short-term rentals in place. They will start changing some available apartments in short stay spaces in the spring. They plan to start making bookings come online within the next month.

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