urbanSTL

This would be typical...
306 apts : 1.0 per unit = 306 spaces
300 hotel rooms: 0.5 per key = 150 spaces
288,000 sf office space : 4 per 1,000 SF = 1,152 spaces
37,000 sf retail: 5 per 1,000 SF = 185 spaces
Total: 1,793

Assume some reduction and shared parking between the hotel, retail and office might get you down to 1,000 at a bare minimum.  Office has a ton of space to fill, you aren't attracting a HQ type tenant these days without a lot of attached or adjacent parking, certainly not 140 shared with the retail.  Apartment renters (and investors) still want the security of 1 guaranteed space per unit, until the market can consistently show otherwise, but we're not there yet.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/gov ... -top-story

The board also approved bills from Alderman Jack Coatar, of Soulard, authorizing incentives for two downtown projects without debate.

One bill is intended to help developer Advantes Group turn the vacant AT&T tower on Chestnut Street into a “vertical city,” with hundreds of apartments and hotel rooms replacing much of the office space, a restaurant on the 43rd floor, and a rooftop pool. The incentives include $41 million in abated taxes over 15 years and a $2.9 million exemption from sales taxes on construction materials.

Talking to someone in the real estate development biz and they said this project is being talked about nationally by lenders and brokers there is there is so much money to be paid with tax credits and other incentives. This person said still he give Gateway South much better chance of moving forward than this one and I agree, advantes is jumping from 20-30 unit projects to this and that’s a large step up

$0 zoning-only building permit application submitted

Got word from a contact at AT&T. The CTO sent out an email to explain how some things will work with the consolidations that AT&T announced this week - for his organization only. It says that they will temporarily consolidate to 7 locations (St. Louis being among them) but then after that, St. Louis and one other location (San Ramon CA) would be off the list.

Though the message doesn't say this explicitly, that seems to indicate that the AT&T Data Center in St. Louis (the other building next to 909) would be closed and/or abandoned by the company.

STLEnginerd wrote: ↑

May 18, 2023

"for his organization only"?  Why does that imply the building is being closed.  I can't be sure but my understanding was that building had a lot of infrastructure that would not be easily relocated and still maintain the same level of service for the region.

He is the CTO, so everyone in that building likely falls under his purview (it's all tech/IT folks). My guess is the company is accelerating the push to Azure/AWS cloud. They've closed most of their data centers so far, so it would be a continuation of that. Just reading the tea leaves here.

bprop wrote: ↑

May 18, 2023

STLEnginerd wrote: ↑

May 18, 2023

"for his organization only"?  Why does that imply the building is being closed.  I can't be sure but my understanding was that building had a lot of infrastructure that would not be easily relocated and still maintain the same level of service for the region.

He is the CTO, so everyone in that building likely falls under his purview (it's all tech/IT folks). My guess is the company is accelerating the push to Azure/AWS cloud. They've closed most of their data centers so far, so it would be a continuation of that. Just reading the tea leaves here.

It is a lot about human resources as well.   My wife who worked at 909 Chestnut before we moved out west and now is working out of ATT's San Ramon office has been getting updates on ATT's plan to consolidate their IT/tech workforce into specific nodes or tech centers that will no longer include either location.  Believe ATT has picked Seattle as its west coast tech center/node.  Not sure what that means for St. Louis employees or for my wife for that matter as ATT had a lot of work from home before WFH was popular.   So maybe some of the employees will either have to consider moving and or maybe do the periodic long commute on their own dime     

Designating a redeveloper, Beacon on Chestnut LLC, for 909 Chestnut is on the LCRA Board agenda for July 25th.

On 909 Chestnut, the tax break has already been approved.  They are just assigning the redeveloper.

^ some tax breaks have been, theyre asking for others 

Deal dead for sale of AT&T tower in downtown St. Louis

ST. LOUIS — A local developer is no longer pursuing a deal to buy and redevelop downtown's long-vacant, former AT&T tower, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/bus ... -top-story

This always felt too good to be true.

City needs to write a check. A big one. Thats it. It’s the only way this moves forward.

I’m going to guess this is due to financing problems. Either (1) the developer couldn’t make this pencil out at the current high interest rates or (2) no bank is willing to finance this given the office space component.

If you were the owner, where do you go from here?! Does the developer go back to the drawing board and try something new, come back at a later date. I would hate to see this building sit another decade or more. Then the 'tear it down' crowd will get louder. Our skyline already punches below it's weight. We cannot lose 909. It has too much potential. It can be our signature tower. I seriously think the City has to float some Rams money at this property to incentivize a developer to take this project on. 

I think the developer just doesnt have the expertise to do this type of project.   $ shouldn't be too much of an issue, its a $300m project that you're getting half of the $ from tax credits, so a $300m asset at a price of $150M 

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Aug 17, 2023

I think the developer just doesnt have the expertise to do this type of project.   $ shouldn't be too much of an issue, its a $300m project that you're getting half of the $ from tax credits, so a $300m asset at a price of $150M 

The credits are intended to supplement the cost / bridge the gap  of a historically significant building that otherwise would not be financially feasible.  A 300M project with 150M in credits is likely not worth anymore than 150M.