Elevator woes plague Downtown building

March 28--For tenants of the Allegheny Building, Downtown, the toughest part of Monday morning's commute came when they arrived for work.

That's when they found that all three of the building's elevators were shut down, forcing some of them to hoof it up as many as 19 floors to get to their offices.

Notices on the doors at the entrance to the building at 429 Forbes Ave. blamed the elevator woes on a "transformer issue."

The signs stated that building management, Duquesne Light Co. and Core Realty, the owner of the former Macy's/Kaufmann's building next door, "are working 24/7 to get the elevators back up and running."

Building tenants, which include Allegheny County's Family Court and the Office of Conflict Counsel as well as attorneys and real estate and insurance companies, have been dealing with elevator woes for a couple of weeks. And it looks as if they will be saddled with the issues at least another day.

They were notified by building management late Monday afternoon that there would be no elevator service Tuesday. Duquesne Light, the notice stated, would be scheduling tests for the Allegheny and Macy's buildings "to figure out the issue with their transformer." The buildings share the same electrical vault.

Erin Currin, an associate attorney with the Luvara Law Group on the 14th floor, said the elevators have been operating intermittently the past couple of weeks.

On Monday, she hiked up the stairs to her office. She's getting used to the trek, although it's not very appealing.

"You start struggling by 4. By the time you get to 8, you've accepted your fate. By the time you get to 12, you think you might as well keep going at this point. By 14, your legs are shaking," she said.

Although the notices blamed the shutdown on a transformer issue, Dave Buckley, an agent for New York-based King Penguin Opportunity Fund, the building owner, said he wasn't sure what was causing the problems.

"We didn't shut them off. They shut off. We have to figure out the problem," he said.

The electrical vault does not appear to be the issue, according to Duquesne Light spokeswoman Ashlee Yingling. In an email, she said the utility's crews "evaluated our electrical vault and all indications show that our equipment is operating properly."

The power company scheduled Tuesday's testing "to proactively test all equipment in order to help the property owner diagnose the problem," Ms. Yingling said.

Michael Mikelic, King Penguin managing principal, disputed Duquesne Light's contention that its equipment, including the transformer, appeared to be working properly.

"Both our building and next door at Macy's, we do not have adequate power and we have been working on this issue with them almost nonstop," he said in an email.

This isn't the first time tenants of the Allegheny Building have faced hardships.

Last summer, they were forced out of the building for a month after a fire at the former Macy's property knocked out power.

That, coupled with the lack of a functioning fire pump, which was damaged in an April flood, kept them from their offices for all but four hours on Wednesdays.

Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.

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