From the Pittsburgh Business Times by Tim Schooley – Reporter, Aug 7, 2025
Mercer County-based Hudson Cos. has closed on a big-ticket buy in what has become a three-phase multifamily development along Melwood Avenue in Oakland near the Baum Centre Corridor.
With the 10-story Julian apartment building now leasing up and the secondtower the Parker poised to get under way, affiliates of Hudson Cos. called Hudson Melwood III LP/Melwood III Managment LLC have bought the property at 450 Melwood Ave. for $8.2 million, buying it from members of the Olander family, a longtime property owner in the East End.
It’s a property long known as the Melwood Professional Building that was occupied as recently as last year by UPMC and dates to 1930 as a one-time car dealership property, with a commercial real estate listing for it putting the three-story structure at a total of more than 59,000 square feet of office space, translating to nearly $139 a square foot in sale price.
An executive for Hudson wasn’t immediately available for comment.
The company was approved by the Pittsburgh Planning Commission last fall to pursue a redevelopment of the property into 42 apartments.
A major motivating factor for Hudson to buy 450 Melwood is its parking decks on a hill-moored structure, for which the 153 spaces are expected to be used for the Parker project under construction across Melwood.
In total, Hudson expects to add a total off more than 350 apartments in the block of Melwood near Baum Boulevard, with the all-but-completed 10-story Julian project at 419 Melwood with 149 units available and the 12-story Parker project next to it expected to total 166 apartments when completed at 435 and 445 Melwood.
The Hudson affiliates recently received new financing for its Melwood plans as well.
According to mortgage records, the company’s Hudson Melwood III affiliates received a $15.75 million mortgage from Dollar Bank as well as a $3.5 million loan from the Employee Real Estate Construction Trust fund, an investment source in local development projects by the region’s building trades.