July 19, 2024 • 23 mins
Lucas B. Piatt is the Chief Executive Officer of Piatt Companies and Piatt Sotheby’s International Realty. After over 25 years in development, real estate, and leadership, Lucas artfully blends his professional experience with his passion to bring innovative projects to life. He oversees a portfolio of over $1 billion in revitalization projects throughout Western Pennsylvania, having invested over $500 million in the redevelopment of Downtown Pittsburgh over the past 20 years. Lucas is a respected industry leader who values partnerships to create world-class, luxury experiences for everyone in Pittsburgh.
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(00:05):
And welcome in. This is theCEO's You Used to Know podcast. I'm
your host, Johnny Hartwell, let'ssay hello to Lucas Piett. Thank you
for joining me. H, Johnny, thanks for having me. So tell
me everything we need to know aboutpiet Companies. Oh wow, it's a
long story. It's a family business, rightly business, all right, So
tell me everything we need to know. My father started our company in nineteen
fifty seven. But before that,his father started a machine shop down in
(00:30):
Washington, Pennsylvania called Piot Machine.My dad started what was called Millcraft Industries
in nineteen fifty seven, which wasa spin off of that machine shop.
And you know, like a lotof things in Pittsburgh, our roots are
in steel right as a company.So we started that machine shop and that
(00:51):
grew into a large business with lotsof hard work and entrepreneurial type activities and
became a very very success full steelcompany that did continuous cast through repair for
the entirety of the steel industry.And then when did you get involved?
Well, so you know, wewere in the steel industry. Then it
(01:11):
went into I mean we were ina lot of different things. Jet leasing.
My dad brought the first Lear jetsto Washington County. So at the
Washington County Airport, we had ajet leasing business. We've had insurance companies,
we've had fitness companies, but hisbig claim to fame was South Point
and in the eighties, you know, we purchased that it was owned by
(01:32):
the county, by the state,by the county, and we developed South
Point and that was very successful,and I came in. I got involved
kind of at the end of thatproject to finish up leasing on the last
couple of buildings. But after college, I worked for Crown Castle International and
did facilities work for them, andI think that's a super important thing to
(01:53):
go out get either ideas and thenbring them back to the company. So
I got involved in about two thousandand three working for Piot Companies then called
Millcraft Investments and successfully at least thosebuildings up at South Point. And then
we kind of started looking at eachother like what's the next uh, what's
(02:14):
the next chapter for our company?And that's when we turned our approach into
downtown Pittsburgh. All right, let'sgo back to your father. What kind
of guy was he? Because he'skind of a he's kind of an original
kind of character in this town.Yeah, he was like a legend,
you know, no doubt about that. You know, he's kind of like
that Washington County rat pack. Youknow, you got the Hardy's and the
(02:37):
you know, the Ryans and thePiots and and uh so Dad was like
a big thinker, had an incrediblegut, not afraid to take a risk,
you know, hard hard as afather. He was tough on me
as a kid, you know,growing up, and loved his business and
sacrificed a little bit of family forbusiness, but he still loved the family.
(02:59):
Well that's what I wanted to do, No, what was it like,
you know, following his footsteps,he he looms large in Pittsburgh.
Yeah. You know, it's alwaysa challenge to fill shoes of a big
guy like that. And I thinkI did. You know, I think
I've been successful doing it. Andyou know, I had this really nice
opportunity to work with Dad over many, many years. And you know,
(03:20):
he was an older gentleman. Hepassed away at ninety two in two thousand
and one or ninety one in twothousand and one, So I had this
great opportunity to be ultra focused togetherwith him in the growth of the company.
You know, I came to thecompany, we had like fifteen employees
and maybe thirty million dollars in assets, and we took that from that to
you know, one hundred employees andfour hundred million dollars in assets. So
(03:45):
we really grew the company significantly overthe last many years. And I did
it together with him as his partner. And it was really fun because he
I think he was really proud tosee me sore, but also he kicked
me in the and the butt everyonein a while to say, you know,
pay attention. What was the onething that he really impressed on you?
(04:05):
Was there anything that any piece ofadvice that has stuck in your He
would always say a couple of things. Do what you say you're going to
do, which I like to thinkthat when I make a promise, we
follow through with it. And hesaid if you if you buy it right,
you can sell it right. Andthat was really important for him to
say. If you, if younegotiate things like price up front, and
(04:27):
you work hard to keep your costsin line, you can make a profit
on the back end. But healso was a big thinker and understood the
level of you know, you gotto come from a little bit of abundance
in your thinking in order to attractabundance. So he did understand that as
well. So he was tough onthe cost, but he was not afraid
to spend money either. So wherewhat would be his impression of where you
(04:50):
take in the company. Well,I mean, I you know, being
that I was with him significantly untilthe very end, and he was involved.
He wasn't was he was he involvedall the way till the end.
Oh yeah, yeah. I meanhe had a couple of health mishaps that
set him back, and then hehad COVID. Obviously he didn't have COVID,
(05:10):
but you know, we went throughCOVID together, and that was a
big setback for him, I thinkmentally because he was everything was freedom for
him and had that taken away.It was a little tough for him.
I think, you know, thereare times where he thought maybe I was
too aggressive growing the company, particularlylike when I said we're going to start
piots Athoby's International Royalty, which isour residential brokerage. I think he like
(05:33):
I committed to opening seven offices immediatelybecause I figured we're going to go one
hundred percent on this, and there'sno like we're going to take one little
step and slowly do it. Iwanted to make an impact. He probably
thought opening seven offices was absolutely crazy. Was he right? I think he
was wrong, actually, because thatcompany has been a phenomenal growth story where
(06:00):
we've got very strong market share.Our recruiting efforts for bringing top talent to
our company is really unmatched. Ourretention is incredible. And although we did
open seven offices, we didn't openseven big offices. We opened seven small
gallery offices that showcased the South ofey'st brand, which is world renowned and
I think the probably in everything topten brands ever created. I think it's
(06:27):
that good. Well, you know, this is not an ideal time for
real estate. Yeah, it's achallenging time for real estate, and we've
weathered the majority, I feel ofthe storm. On the residential side,
we're starting to see more inventory comein. I think we're on the other
side of interest rates, so we'restarting to see that get better. But
(06:47):
we also had one of the besttimes ever in real estate, and that
was after the COVID you know,pandemic, where everybody wanted to upgrade to
buy a new house REVI, andso we saw a lot of success.
In fact, we grew that companysignificantly after that fact, because I think
when a lot of real estate companieskind of looked in or didn't do anything,
they were just kind of drifting.We had a really clear opportunity to
(07:13):
like silver lining, focus on ourpeople, focus on our culture, focus
on our learning, be better professionals, and come out of this shining.
And I think we did shine asa company. And you know, we
have great leadership there and believe itor not, you know, it's interesting,
but a lot of our leadership comesfrom our real estate advisors, where
(07:33):
typically leadership is just the person atthe top. This has actually got of
grassroots, right, came up fromthe bottom. And I always say it's
an inverted or chart. We're atthe bottom, like welcome to the bottom.
All right, So tell me aboutyour team on the south east side.
Great guy who was a Berkshire Hathawayguy came over. His name is
(07:57):
Chris Dixon. He and I sharedthis vision and it's like an unwavering thing
of like ladies and gentlemen serving ladiesand gentlemen, quality, follow through branding,
which is extremely important and really justrecruiting the best people because this business
is all about people. You know, your clients, your your advisors,
(08:18):
and it's really taking care of aperson probably doing the most emotional and probably
expensive thing that they're ever going todo. Buy a home, sell a
home, you know, move well. Tell me more about your vision though
for the company, where do yousee it going? Continuing to grow,
but being very respectful to the charterthat we have, which is we don't
(08:39):
grow for growth, we grow withthe right people, because I think it's
critical that even though we are youknow, one hundred and twenty agents now
that we've done that very respectfully tothe growth and making sure that we only
hire good human beings. Number onea really full time professionals. We don't
(09:03):
hire new bees. We don't We'renot on a training ground. So the
Bees is really a place where youcome to after you've learned and go to
the next level of your career.So I've been very proud about that part
of the business. And that wassomething that was grown organically outside of the
history of Piet and Millcraft. Itwas something that was grown organically from one
(09:28):
agent two one hundred and twenty agents. So really proud of that part of
the business. But it's it's notthe most profitable business. You know,
it's very competitive. Real estate advisorshave lots of options. People throw lots
of money at them to move.So it's not the most profitable, but
(09:50):
it is very, very rewarding.So you're developing this company as there are
certainly challenges in industry and like yousaid, I came from the steel in
more challenges than you could ever imagine, steel dumping, bankruptcies, insane challenges,
dealing with these steel mills, andkind of the trend in the market
(10:13):
fluctuation. So every business has trends. So you have the advantage of having
a family business who have seen adiversity of problems and being able to overcome
those problems. And you know,real estate certainly had its challenges as we
talked about, but you know,it feels like the winds are starting to
(10:35):
change. It feels it feels better, you know. So just a quick
further snapshot of our company. We'resuper diverse, right, so we have
you know, we talked about piotsocopies, we talked about development, but we
also are a hospitality company. Weown hotels and restaurants, we have a
title company venture that we're involved in. We do property management, we do
(11:00):
hoa's, we do apartments, wedo ground ground development. So right now
we're building like four hundred lots forRyan Holmes for NVR up in Zeleianople.
So we're extremely diverse as a company. In fact, we just opened our
first UFC gym, which is ourfitness venture, and we're opening our second
one at the Waterfront in September,so we're starting to grow that as well.
(11:24):
What made you get into that wellfacet of the business. Well,
at first, it was just areal estate deal because it was a building
that had a fitness center in it. The fitness center regionally went bankrupt.
It was the YMCA not on MarketSquare, and you know, we had
a lease with another fitness company rightbefore COVID and they decided they're not going
(11:46):
to fulfill their obligation. I figured, should we sue them in court or
should we just move on and doit ourselves. And I'm also a big
you know, I'm a big fanof the UFC brand. I think that
it's are aligned with with Pittsburgh andhow we've struggled and have to fight and
everybody's got to fight, right,So for me, that brand kind of
(12:09):
resonated with me and with Pittsburgh.And the thing I love about the UFC
gym is it's not a fight jim. It has opportunities to learn Brazilian jiu
jitsu and may tie and kickboxing,but really it's just a really great fitness
community. So if you want togo in and do yoga, pilates,
or just pump iron or do cardio, you can do that. But if
(12:33):
you want to learn the cardio trainingthat those true athletes are probably some of
the best athletes in the world,then you can do that through our daily
ultimate training. But if you wantto learn Brazilian jiu jitsu, you can
do that. So it's totally it'slike a fitness mall where you have opportunities
within that space to do whatever youwant, whatever path you're on for your
(12:58):
fitness journey, and I love it. It's a great community. So we're
gonna grow. We're gonna grow thatto probably four so that fitness division of
our company is growing. Do youparticipate in any of those activities? I
started doing Brazilian jiu jitsu and waitThai and I'm no good, but you
seem like an interesting cat. Heseems like you're like the family has been
diversify. You seem like a verydiverse kind of You have diverse interests.
(13:24):
I could never you know, Iwas a musician in college, played guitar,
sang. I did that better thancollege. So but I also thought
that I could never be a musicianbecause I could never play that one song
every single day. You know.I like to have diversity, and maybe
it's adhd or whatever it is,but I like to do different things every
(13:48):
day. And that's why I thinkwe're in restaurants. And is that why
your portfolio is so diverse? Ithink, I mean, you know,
for me, it makes a tonof sense. All right. Now,
speaking of music, you have kindof a philanthropic project called Rock, Reggae
and Relief. So how did thisall start? And tell us about the
(14:11):
event that's coming up. Well,similar to fitness, it was a you
know, the first time we everdid it was just to get more business
down on Forbes Avenue in downtown.So the first kind of concept that we
came up was called rum, rockand Reggae, and it wasn't a charity
at that time. Three of myfavorite things right, everybody's favorite thing.
(14:31):
So that was you know, whenour big high rise just got finished off
of Market Square, the Tower twosixty e JLL Center, and we had
Parata, which was a Caribbean conceptin the building at that time, and
our goal was just to get peopleback on Forbes. So we said,
oh, this would be fantastic.Do a rum festival, you know,
(14:52):
free admission, just have a greatday and you know that type of thing.
So we worked with with some folksfrom Parada and Concept rum rock and
reggae. At that point in time, I said, okay, let's take
this to a charity. Boy fromme like, this is a home run,
right, We get to give back, we get to have a party,
which you know I love to entertain, and that was a big thing.
(15:13):
That what we talked about Dad.He loved to entertain and he loved
music. He used to do athing in Meadowlands called the Barn Party and
it was coincide with the Adios horseRace, and he would bring guys from
hee Haw and Chad Atkins and theseold old he Haw and Grandall and Opry
folks to the Palace and they'd playin the barn and a huge party that's
(15:35):
great. So that's kind of whatwas in my gut for this one.
When you were in college and youplayed instrument what did you play? I
played guitar and sang okay, mmhmm, all right, so the who
Bennett, what's the relief part ofit? Let's do Yeah. So we
rolled into the year after that andmade it the charity and changed the name
(15:56):
to Rock Reggae Relief because we couldn'tget sponsors if the word rum was in
there, so we changed it toRock Reggae and Relief. And the way
that we did it was we typicallyhave a rock band, a reggae band,
and then we give back to thecharity, and that charity changes each
year. So we've done things likefour to one two, food Rescue,
ovarian cancer, really great causes.Puerto Rico went after the hurricanes, we
(16:18):
did Cafe Momentum, we did We'redoing Pittsburgh Scholarhouse this year and trying to
think about who was last year Ican't recall. Okay, So it's turned
into this annual charity event. Yes, so tell me everything we need to
know about this year's event. Yeah, this year is the biggest year we've
(16:40):
ever had. We've outgrown Forbes Avenue. We love doing it on Forbes because
we love transforming the street into areal festival environment, but truly it's a
lot of work. It's hard topull off, and frankly, the crowd's
gotten too big. So we decidedthis year to take it to Stay Ae.
We brought in the Dirty Heads,who's one of the biggest rock reggae
(17:02):
bands in the industry right now.We brought in a band called The Movement,
who's really up and coming, theElevators. We got Third World,
who's one of the biggest Jamaican reggaefor a long time. They've got some
great hits. We've got a littlebit of a local flare with Fu Bar.
There's a group called Roots of Creationthat's been in the show almost from
(17:25):
the beginning. I think this istheir sixth year, so they're kind of
They have like a lifetime pass tocome to the show. Nice to be
part of the show, and theydo a pre show at a restaurant,
revel on the night before on Friday. So it's August tenth at Stay j
E again Pittsburgh's Scholarhouse, which isa great organization. We're gonna yeah tell
(17:47):
us a little bit about the organization. Yeah, so we've trended, you
know, because we're in the housingbusiness, we've trended over the last couple
of years towards housing and supporting housing. So this is like education housing and
covers the cost that single parents havewhen they seek secondary education. So if
they want to get their degree,if they want to get their high school
(18:10):
diploma ged, obviously there's costs associatedwith that, and they need help with
childcare, they need help with housingduring that timeframe, and that's what Pittsburgh
Scholarhouse does. So it's a greatgroup. We're super stoked about partnering with
them this year, and you canget your ticket and info at Rock Reggae
Relief dot com. Yes, nowI would be remiss without asking you a
(18:34):
few questions. Obviously, you're you'rea Pittsburgh guy, you grew up in
this region and you've you know,the name Piot has been associated with a
lot of projects downtown. It's gotto be very difficult to do anything downtown.
I'm sure that any kind of youknow, any kind of any anything's
tough. So I know that yourname is associated with a variety of projects.
(19:00):
Sure, where are those projects.Where are we going to see some
of the things. Yeah. Soour last project we did was louvi Air.
That's our condo project. We're sellingout the last fifteen units in that
building. Yeah, Downtown's tough,the city's tough. Anywhere is tough to
develop real estate right now. There'smany, many layers of challenges both from
(19:21):
public to community and neighbors and entitlementsand improval approvals and financing. Frankly,
and you need a company like Piot. We don't give up, like we're
going to see it to the end. We don't give up. We're very
resilient. That's one of the thingsthat you know, Dad was very resilient.
That is in our DNA. Wedon't give up until the project's complete.
(19:44):
You know, it takes a longtime and you have to be willing
to see it to the end.So the name pie doesn't It doesn't nationally.
Actually no, it doesn't. I'msure it helps a little, but
you still have to put in thework. You got to put the work
in. You can't give up.And that's the difference is. You know
a lot of people just walk awayfrom their vision and say, Okay,
I gave it a run and it'sdone, like we have to finish,
like we have to make sure it'ssuccessful. So we got this big project
(20:07):
on the north Shore that everybody's beentalking about. It's called Esplanade. It's
probably up at the end of theday, could even be in upwards of
a billion dollars of investment occurring onthe north side of Pittsburgh in the Chateau
neighborhood. You know, we talkabout it's going to have the Ferris Wheel,
which is cool for Pittsburgh because theFerriss Wheel, you know, George
(20:30):
Ferris lived and died in the NorthSide, so to pay homage to that
innovation is pretty critical for us.But we're all going to have housing condos,
help reconnect the fabric of Manchester backto the river. We'll have the
best marina in the city, alot of opportunity for growth, great retail,
(20:52):
restaurants, entertainment destination type stuff,and you know, fixing a lot
of issues. So if this projectis the impetus to help the whole community,
we're going to raise significant dollars thatit's going to go back into the
community. It's going to create thejobs that we need, is going to
create the training that folks from thatregion need and want, and we're super
(21:15):
excited to partner with the community anddo it the right way. Well,
it's fairly easy to convince someone likeme who's lived here all my life.
I think Pittsburgh is a is ait's a hub for innovation. I think
it's a hub for incredibly hard workingindividuals, and it's a hub for diversity.
(21:38):
It's a it's a hub for somany things that are that are positive,
which also reflects on the piet companies, doesn't it. Yeah, it
does. There's there's a lot ofsynergy between I think the diversity of our
company in the diversity that we've seenin the city of Pittsburgh in this entire
region where it's you know, webootstrap, we get through resilient. We're
(22:00):
resilient. You know, we battlethrough the tough times. You know,
we had a industry in Pittsburgh thatwas decimated when steel left and when things
like US Airways left, and wedeal with it and we always come out
on the better side. And ourcompanies the same way. We have had
challenges. You know, we've gonethrough transitions and we've always come out on
(22:23):
a positive place. At the end, that's because we care, and I
think that Pittsburgh's care. They do. They're a little hesitant for change sometimes,
but I think that's probably a goodtrait because we do it in an
authentic way. Typically, they're fascinating. Guy. This has been fun.
Lucas piet of the Piled Companies anda reflection of Pittsburgh itself. Thank you
(22:45):
for joining. This has been fun. Thank you so thank you. Thanks
for having me. This has beenthe CEOs you Should Know podcast, showcasing
businesses that are driving our regional economy. Part of iHeartMedia's commitment to the communities
we serve. I'm Johnny Hartwell,thank you so much for listening.
And welcome in. This is theCEO's You Used to Know podcast. I'm
your host, Johnny Hartwell, let'ssay hello to Lucas Piett. Thank you
for joining me. H, Johnny, thanks for having me. So tell
me everything we need to know aboutpiet Companies. Oh wow, it's a
long story. It's a family business, rightly business, all right, So
tell me everything we need to know. My father started our company in nineteen
fifty seven. But before that,his father started a machine shop down in
(00:30):
Washington, Pennsylvania called Piot Machine.My dad started what was called Millcraft Industries
in nineteen fifty seven, which wasa spin off of that machine shop.
And you know, like a lotof things in Pittsburgh, our roots are
in steel right as a company.So we started that machine shop and that
(00:51):
grew into a large business with lotsof hard work and entrepreneurial type activities and
became a very very success full steelcompany that did continuous cast through repair for
the entirety of the steel industry.And then when did you get involved?
Well, so you know, wewere in the steel industry. Then it
(01:11):
went into I mean we were ina lot of different things. Jet leasing.
My dad brought the first Lear jetsto Washington County. So at the
Washington County Airport, we had ajet leasing business. We've had insurance companies,
we've had fitness companies, but hisbig claim to fame was South Point
and in the eighties, you know, we purchased that it was owned by
(01:32):
the county, by the state,by the county, and we developed South
Point and that was very successful,and I came in. I got involved
kind of at the end of thatproject to finish up leasing on the last
couple of buildings. But after college, I worked for Crown Castle International and
did facilities work for them, andI think that's a super important thing to
(01:53):
go out get either ideas and thenbring them back to the company. So
I got involved in about two thousandand three working for Piot Companies then called
Millcraft Investments and successfully at least thosebuildings up at South Point. And then
we kind of started looking at eachother like what's the next uh, what's
(02:14):
the next chapter for our company?And that's when we turned our approach into
downtown Pittsburgh. All right, let'sgo back to your father. What kind
of guy was he? Because he'skind of a he's kind of an original
kind of character in this town.Yeah, he was like a legend,
you know, no doubt about that. You know, he's kind of like
that Washington County rat pack. Youknow, you got the Hardy's and the
(02:37):
you know, the Ryans and thePiots and and uh so Dad was like
a big thinker, had an incrediblegut, not afraid to take a risk,
you know, hard hard as afather. He was tough on me
as a kid, you know,growing up, and loved his business and
sacrificed a little bit of family forbusiness, but he still loved the family.
(02:59):
Well that's what I wanted to do, No, what was it like,
you know, following his footsteps,he he looms large in Pittsburgh.
Yeah. You know, it's alwaysa challenge to fill shoes of a big
guy like that. And I thinkI did. You know, I think
I've been successful doing it. Andyou know, I had this really nice
opportunity to work with Dad over many, many years. And you know,
(03:20):
he was an older gentleman. Hepassed away at ninety two in two thousand
and one or ninety one in twothousand and one, So I had this
great opportunity to be ultra focused togetherwith him in the growth of the company.
You know, I came to thecompany, we had like fifteen employees
and maybe thirty million dollars in assets, and we took that from that to
you know, one hundred employees andfour hundred million dollars in assets. So
(03:45):
we really grew the company significantly overthe last many years. And I did
it together with him as his partner. And it was really fun because he
I think he was really proud tosee me sore, but also he kicked
me in the and the butt everyonein a while to say, you know,
pay attention. What was the onething that he really impressed on you?
(04:05):
Was there anything that any piece ofadvice that has stuck in your He
would always say a couple of things. Do what you say you're going to
do, which I like to thinkthat when I make a promise, we
follow through with it. And hesaid if you if you buy it right,
you can sell it right. Andthat was really important for him to
say. If you, if younegotiate things like price up front, and
(04:27):
you work hard to keep your costsin line, you can make a profit
on the back end. But healso was a big thinker and understood the
level of you know, you gotto come from a little bit of abundance
in your thinking in order to attractabundance. So he did understand that as
well. So he was tough onthe cost, but he was not afraid
to spend money either. So wherewhat would be his impression of where you
(04:50):
take in the company. Well,I mean, I you know, being
that I was with him significantly untilthe very end, and he was involved.
He wasn't was he was he involvedall the way till the end.
Oh yeah, yeah. I meanhe had a couple of health mishaps that
set him back, and then hehad COVID. Obviously he didn't have COVID,
(05:10):
but you know, we went throughCOVID together, and that was a
big setback for him, I thinkmentally because he was everything was freedom for
him and had that taken away.It was a little tough for him.
I think, you know, thereare times where he thought maybe I was
too aggressive growing the company, particularlylike when I said we're going to start
piots Athoby's International Royalty, which isour residential brokerage. I think he like
(05:33):
I committed to opening seven offices immediatelybecause I figured we're going to go one
hundred percent on this, and there'sno like we're going to take one little
step and slowly do it. Iwanted to make an impact. He probably
thought opening seven offices was absolutely crazy. Was he right? I think he
was wrong, actually, because thatcompany has been a phenomenal growth story where
(06:00):
we've got very strong market share.Our recruiting efforts for bringing top talent to
our company is really unmatched. Ourretention is incredible. And although we did
open seven offices, we didn't openseven big offices. We opened seven small
gallery offices that showcased the South ofey'st brand, which is world renowned and
I think the probably in everything topten brands ever created. I think it's
(06:27):
that good. Well, you know, this is not an ideal time for
real estate. Yeah, it's achallenging time for real estate, and we've
weathered the majority, I feel ofthe storm. On the residential side,
we're starting to see more inventory comein. I think we're on the other
side of interest rates, so we'restarting to see that get better. But
(06:47):
we also had one of the besttimes ever in real estate, and that
was after the COVID you know,pandemic, where everybody wanted to upgrade to
buy a new house REVI, andso we saw a lot of success.
In fact, we grew that companysignificantly after that fact, because I think
when a lot of real estate companieskind of looked in or didn't do anything,
they were just kind of drifting.We had a really clear opportunity to
(07:13):
like silver lining, focus on ourpeople, focus on our culture, focus
on our learning, be better professionals, and come out of this shining.
And I think we did shine asa company. And you know, we
have great leadership there and believe itor not, you know, it's interesting,
but a lot of our leadership comesfrom our real estate advisors, where
(07:33):
typically leadership is just the person atthe top. This has actually got of
grassroots, right, came up fromthe bottom. And I always say it's
an inverted or chart. We're atthe bottom, like welcome to the bottom.
All right, So tell me aboutyour team on the south east side.
Great guy who was a Berkshire Hathawayguy came over. His name is
(07:57):
Chris Dixon. He and I sharedthis vision and it's like an unwavering thing
of like ladies and gentlemen serving ladiesand gentlemen, quality, follow through branding,
which is extremely important and really justrecruiting the best people because this business
is all about people. You know, your clients, your your advisors,
(08:18):
and it's really taking care of aperson probably doing the most emotional and probably
expensive thing that they're ever going todo. Buy a home, sell a
home, you know, move well. Tell me more about your vision though
for the company, where do yousee it going? Continuing to grow,
but being very respectful to the charterthat we have, which is we don't
(08:39):
grow for growth, we grow withthe right people, because I think it's
critical that even though we are youknow, one hundred and twenty agents now
that we've done that very respectfully tothe growth and making sure that we only
hire good human beings. Number onea really full time professionals. We don't
(09:03):
hire new bees. We don't We'renot on a training ground. So the
Bees is really a place where youcome to after you've learned and go to
the next level of your career.So I've been very proud about that part
of the business. And that wassomething that was grown organically outside of the
history of Piet and Millcraft. Itwas something that was grown organically from one
(09:28):
agent two one hundred and twenty agents. So really proud of that part of
the business. But it's it's notthe most profitable business. You know,
it's very competitive. Real estate advisorshave lots of options. People throw lots
of money at them to move.So it's not the most profitable, but
(09:50):
it is very, very rewarding.So you're developing this company as there are
certainly challenges in industry and like yousaid, I came from the steel in
more challenges than you could ever imagine, steel dumping, bankruptcies, insane challenges,
dealing with these steel mills, andkind of the trend in the market
(10:13):
fluctuation. So every business has trends. So you have the advantage of having
a family business who have seen adiversity of problems and being able to overcome
those problems. And you know,real estate certainly had its challenges as we
talked about, but you know,it feels like the winds are starting to
(10:35):
change. It feels it feels better, you know. So just a quick
further snapshot of our company. We'resuper diverse, right, so we have
you know, we talked about piotsocopies, we talked about development, but we
also are a hospitality company. Weown hotels and restaurants, we have a
title company venture that we're involved in. We do property management, we do
(11:00):
hoa's, we do apartments, wedo ground ground development. So right now
we're building like four hundred lots forRyan Holmes for NVR up in Zeleianople.
So we're extremely diverse as a company. In fact, we just opened our
first UFC gym, which is ourfitness venture, and we're opening our second
one at the Waterfront in September,so we're starting to grow that as well.
(11:24):
What made you get into that wellfacet of the business. Well,
at first, it was just areal estate deal because it was a building
that had a fitness center in it. The fitness center regionally went bankrupt.
It was the YMCA not on MarketSquare, and you know, we had
a lease with another fitness company rightbefore COVID and they decided they're not going
(11:46):
to fulfill their obligation. I figured, should we sue them in court or
should we just move on and doit ourselves. And I'm also a big
you know, I'm a big fanof the UFC brand. I think that
it's are aligned with with Pittsburgh andhow we've struggled and have to fight and
everybody's got to fight, right,So for me, that brand kind of
(12:09):
resonated with me and with Pittsburgh.And the thing I love about the UFC
gym is it's not a fight jim. It has opportunities to learn Brazilian jiu
jitsu and may tie and kickboxing,but really it's just a really great fitness
community. So if you want togo in and do yoga, pilates,
or just pump iron or do cardio, you can do that. But if
(12:33):
you want to learn the cardio trainingthat those true athletes are probably some of
the best athletes in the world,then you can do that through our daily
ultimate training. But if you wantto learn Brazilian jiu jitsu, you can
do that. So it's totally it'slike a fitness mall where you have opportunities
within that space to do whatever youwant, whatever path you're on for your
(12:58):
fitness journey, and I love it. It's a great community. So we're
gonna grow. We're gonna grow thatto probably four so that fitness division of
our company is growing. Do youparticipate in any of those activities? I
started doing Brazilian jiu jitsu and waitThai and I'm no good, but you
seem like an interesting cat. Heseems like you're like the family has been
diversify. You seem like a verydiverse kind of You have diverse interests.
(13:24):
I could never you know, Iwas a musician in college, played guitar,
sang. I did that better thancollege. So but I also thought
that I could never be a musicianbecause I could never play that one song
every single day. You know.I like to have diversity, and maybe
it's adhd or whatever it is,but I like to do different things every
(13:48):
day. And that's why I thinkwe're in restaurants. And is that why
your portfolio is so diverse? Ithink, I mean, you know,
for me, it makes a tonof sense. All right. Now,
speaking of music, you have kindof a philanthropic project called Rock, Reggae
and Relief. So how did thisall start? And tell us about the
(14:11):
event that's coming up. Well,similar to fitness, it was a you
know, the first time we everdid it was just to get more business
down on Forbes Avenue in downtown.So the first kind of concept that we
came up was called rum, rockand Reggae, and it wasn't a charity
at that time. Three of myfavorite things right, everybody's favorite thing.
(14:31):
So that was you know, whenour big high rise just got finished off
of Market Square, the Tower twosixty e JLL Center, and we had
Parata, which was a Caribbean conceptin the building at that time, and
our goal was just to get peopleback on Forbes. So we said,
oh, this would be fantastic.Do a rum festival, you know,
(14:52):
free admission, just have a greatday and you know that type of thing.
So we worked with with some folksfrom Parada and Concept rum rock and
reggae. At that point in time, I said, okay, let's take
this to a charity. Boy fromme like, this is a home run,
right, We get to give back, we get to have a party,
which you know I love to entertain, and that was a big thing.
(15:13):
That what we talked about Dad.He loved to entertain and he loved
music. He used to do athing in Meadowlands called the Barn Party and
it was coincide with the Adios horseRace, and he would bring guys from
hee Haw and Chad Atkins and theseold old he Haw and Grandall and Opry
folks to the Palace and they'd playin the barn and a huge party that's
(15:35):
great. So that's kind of whatwas in my gut for this one.
When you were in college and youplayed instrument what did you play? I
played guitar and sang okay, mmhmm, all right, so the who
Bennett, what's the relief part ofit? Let's do Yeah. So we
rolled into the year after that andmade it the charity and changed the name
(15:56):
to Rock Reggae Relief because we couldn'tget sponsors if the word rum was in
there, so we changed it toRock Reggae and Relief. And the way
that we did it was we typicallyhave a rock band, a reggae band,
and then we give back to thecharity, and that charity changes each
year. So we've done things likefour to one two, food Rescue,
ovarian cancer, really great causes.Puerto Rico went after the hurricanes, we
(16:18):
did Cafe Momentum, we did We'redoing Pittsburgh Scholarhouse this year and trying to
think about who was last year Ican't recall. Okay, So it's turned
into this annual charity event. Yes, so tell me everything we need to
know about this year's event. Yeah, this year is the biggest year we've
(16:40):
ever had. We've outgrown Forbes Avenue. We love doing it on Forbes because
we love transforming the street into areal festival environment, but truly it's a
lot of work. It's hard topull off, and frankly, the crowd's
gotten too big. So we decidedthis year to take it to Stay Ae.
We brought in the Dirty Heads,who's one of the biggest rock reggae
(17:02):
bands in the industry right now.We brought in a band called The Movement,
who's really up and coming, theElevators. We got Third World,
who's one of the biggest Jamaican reggaefor a long time. They've got some
great hits. We've got a littlebit of a local flare with Fu Bar.
There's a group called Roots of Creationthat's been in the show almost from
(17:25):
the beginning. I think this istheir sixth year, so they're kind of
They have like a lifetime pass tocome to the show. Nice to be
part of the show, and theydo a pre show at a restaurant,
revel on the night before on Friday. So it's August tenth at Stay j
E again Pittsburgh's Scholarhouse, which isa great organization. We're gonna yeah tell
(17:47):
us a little bit about the organization. Yeah, so we've trended, you
know, because we're in the housingbusiness, we've trended over the last couple
of years towards housing and supporting housing. So this is like education housing and
covers the cost that single parents havewhen they seek secondary education. So if
they want to get their degree,if they want to get their high school
(18:10):
diploma ged, obviously there's costs associatedwith that, and they need help with
childcare, they need help with housingduring that timeframe, and that's what Pittsburgh
Scholarhouse does. So it's a greatgroup. We're super stoked about partnering with
them this year, and you canget your ticket and info at Rock Reggae
Relief dot com. Yes, nowI would be remiss without asking you a
(18:34):
few questions. Obviously, you're you'rea Pittsburgh guy, you grew up in
this region and you've you know,the name Piot has been associated with a
lot of projects downtown. It's gotto be very difficult to do anything downtown.
I'm sure that any kind of youknow, any kind of any anything's
tough. So I know that yourname is associated with a variety of projects.
(19:00):
Sure, where are those projects.Where are we going to see some
of the things. Yeah. Soour last project we did was louvi Air.
That's our condo project. We're sellingout the last fifteen units in that
building. Yeah, Downtown's tough,the city's tough. Anywhere is tough to
develop real estate right now. There'smany, many layers of challenges both from
(19:21):
public to community and neighbors and entitlementsand improval approvals and financing. Frankly,
and you need a company like Piot. We don't give up, like we're
going to see it to the end. We don't give up. We're very
resilient. That's one of the thingsthat you know, Dad was very resilient.
That is in our DNA. Wedon't give up until the project's complete.
(19:44):
You know, it takes a longtime and you have to be willing
to see it to the end.So the name pie doesn't It doesn't nationally.
Actually no, it doesn't. I'msure it helps a little, but
you still have to put in thework. You got to put the work
in. You can't give up.And that's the difference is. You know
a lot of people just walk awayfrom their vision and say, Okay,
I gave it a run and it'sdone, like we have to finish,
like we have to make sure it'ssuccessful. So we got this big project
(20:07):
on the north Shore that everybody's beentalking about. It's called Esplanade. It's
probably up at the end of theday, could even be in upwards of
a billion dollars of investment occurring onthe north side of Pittsburgh in the Chateau
neighborhood. You know, we talkabout it's going to have the Ferris Wheel,
which is cool for Pittsburgh because theFerriss Wheel, you know, George
(20:30):
Ferris lived and died in the NorthSide, so to pay homage to that
innovation is pretty critical for us.But we're all going to have housing condos,
help reconnect the fabric of Manchester backto the river. We'll have the
best marina in the city, alot of opportunity for growth, great retail,
(20:52):
restaurants, entertainment destination type stuff,and you know, fixing a lot
of issues. So if this projectis the impetus to help the whole community,
we're going to raise significant dollars thatit's going to go back into the
community. It's going to create thejobs that we need, is going to
create the training that folks from thatregion need and want, and we're super
(21:15):
excited to partner with the community anddo it the right way. Well,
it's fairly easy to convince someone likeme who's lived here all my life.
I think Pittsburgh is a is ait's a hub for innovation. I think
it's a hub for incredibly hard workingindividuals, and it's a hub for diversity.
(21:38):
It's a it's a hub for somany things that are that are positive,
which also reflects on the piet companies, doesn't it. Yeah, it
does. There's there's a lot ofsynergy between I think the diversity of our
company in the diversity that we've seenin the city of Pittsburgh in this entire
region where it's you know, webootstrap, we get through resilient. We're
(22:00):
resilient. You know, we battlethrough the tough times. You know,
we had a industry in Pittsburgh thatwas decimated when steel left and when things
like US Airways left, and wedeal with it and we always come out
on the better side. And ourcompanies the same way. We have had
challenges. You know, we've gonethrough transitions and we've always come out on
(22:23):
a positive place. At the end, that's because we care, and I
think that Pittsburgh's care. They do. They're a little hesitant for change sometimes,
but I think that's probably a goodtrait because we do it in an
authentic way. Typically, they're fascinating. Guy. This has been fun.
Lucas piet of the Piled Companies anda reflection of Pittsburgh itself. Thank you
(22:45):
for joining. This has been fun. Thank you so thank you. Thanks
for having me. This has beenthe CEOs you Should Know podcast, showcasing
businesses that are driving our regional economy. Part of iHeartMedia's commitment to the communities
we serve. I'm Johnny Hartwell,thank you so much for listening.
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