WPIAL purchases building with plans to relocate league office

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, November 1, 2022 | 5:25 PM

You might say the WPIAL is transferring offices.

The league plans to move into a newly purchased building on Swallow Hill Road in Scott Township that’s about 6 miles south of the Green Tree office space the WPIAL has called home for more than 20 years.

The cost was $340,000.

The WPIAL leases space in its current building for almost $60,000 per year and had discussed buying its own property for at least the past four years, WPIAL executive director Scott Seltzer said.

“We think it’s a pretty good deal,” Seltzer said. “Long term, we’re going to benefit and help keep our costs down.”

The WPIAL, which has a membership of 140 Western Pennsylvania high schools, received approval from the PIAA to purchase the property.

Online listings describe the building as 5,000 square feet with five bathrooms, a full kitchen, 45 parking spaces and three entrances. The location is about 3 miles from the Heidelberg exit of Interstate-79.

The WPIAL hasn’t decided on a moving date. The league has about a year left on the lease for its current Iron City Drive office, so the WPIAL could stay put until summer, said Seltzer, adding that the new property will require some renovations.

“There are things that we’re going to have to do to that building to get ready for us: Wiring and all those things technology-wise,” Seltzer said. “Plus we’ve got tournaments going right now, so it’s not the best time in the world to just up and leave.”

The WPIAL moved into its current office in August 1998.

The league began exploring its options four years ago under then-executive director Tim O’Malley, but the real estate market wasn’t ideal, said Seltzer, then the WPIAL board president.

“At that time, business offices were more difficult to come by,” he said. “People weren’t selling.”

Seltzer is one of four WPIAL employees who work from the office.

The league currently shares a building with other tenants. The WPIAL will be the only occupant at the new location, which is in the Chartiers Valley School District.

“What’s really nice is you’ll be able to enter on the first floor and our conference room will be on the first floor,” Seltzer said, “so you’re not going to have to walk up two flights of steps. And we’ll have space to store our deliveries. I won’t have to put 30 boxes of footballs in my office because we don’t have any space.”

This surely was the largest purchase in the 116-year history of the WPIAL.

Before moving to its current location, the league’s first headquarters was a second-floor office in Parkway Center that opened in 1976. That was the year the WPIAL hired its first full-time executive director, Charles “Ace” Heberling.

Prior to Heberling’s tenure, WPIAL affairs were conducted from the Monroeville home of then-executive secretary William Lohr, a Wilkinsburg principal.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.