909 Chestnut - Former Southwestern Bell/SBC/AT&T Tower

beer city · Oct 22, 2012#12012-10-22T17:43+00:00

Good blog post from Urban Review chronicling the slow, quiet pull out of AT&T. I have heard from several people that empolyees were down there, done very quietly, almost no press. Also explains the loss of retail blamed on Culinaria (Federated clearing 500 workers out of railway exchange was a big contributer to this as well)

http://urbanreviewstl.com/2012/10/att-q ... -st-louis/

There is about 2 million in sq ft between those buildings, a duanting prospect for owners and brokers.

Edit- ATT has the buildings leased to 2016, I do not know if they still own the large building to the east that contains all of the servers and switch gear

justme123 · Oct 23, 2012#22012-10-23T13:52+00:00

beer city wrote:Good blog post from Urban Review chronicling the slow, quiet pull out of AT&T. I have heard from several people that empolyees were down there, done very quietly, almost no press. Also explains the loss of retail blamed on Culinaria (Federated clearing 500 workers out of railway exchange was a big contributer to this as well)

http://urbanreviewstl.com/2012/10/att-q ... -st-louis/

There is about 2 million in sq ft between those buildings, a duanting prospect for owners and brokers.

Edit- ATT has the buildings leased to 2016, I do not know if they still own the large building to the east that contains all of the servers and switch gear

Interesting....thanks for posting.
While I think a lot of AT&T's actions can be attributed to adjusting to a new business model, as a worker facing job loss due to offshoring, I can say that their handling of the layoffs really stinks.

matguy70 · Oct 27, 2012#32012-10-27T02:43+00:00

St. Louis' headquarters for SWBell were also mainly structured for operator services and Yellow Page Advertising and Operations... both of witch have lost in today's world. AT&T has 4800 employees in the bell towers. AT&T sold One Bell Center to a Chicago company in 2006 and ATT is the only company occupying the building. AT&T then signed a 10-year lease to be the sole company in the tower to 2016.

gregl · Sep 12, 2013#42013-09-12T18:04+00:00

Reports are AT&T will vacate One Bell Center over the next 12 months.

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 64364.html

dweebe · Sep 12, 2013#52013-09-12T18:07+00:00

I know we've talked about this in other threads and many of us have guessed this day was coming.

Even then...(insert numerous very bad words)

gregl · Sep 12, 2013#62013-09-12T18:12+00:00

dweebe wrote:I know we've talked about this in other threads and many of us have guessed this day was coming.

This has far more to do, IMHO, with AT&T than downtown.

AT&T has quietly out-sourced / sold-off major portions of the business & employee base, including IT, Advertising and Yellow Pages. I worked at 1 AT&T Center as an employee from 1998 to 2008 and then as an out-sourced contractor from 2008-2009. The building went from being full to the seams to what seemed half-empty when I left -- and it's only gotten worse since then.

Additionally, AT&T put very little effort into maintaining / improving the building while I was there, eventually selling it off entirely and leasing it back through 2017.

Greg

roger wyoming II · Sep 12, 2013#72013-09-12T18:15+00:00

^ I was a bit encouraged though as it seems like there may not be many actual lay-offs.... am I reading that right? Sounds like the union rep was informed of relocations to other facilities in downtown and the county and not lay-offs. If its more of consolidation the damage won't be as bad as feared and of course a rather attractive tenant-ready building will be available for any new-comers.

DannyJ · Sep 12, 2013#82013-09-12T18:18+00:00

Damn. It feels like downtown keeps going one step forward, one step back lately.

beer city · Sep 12, 2013#92013-09-12T18:19+00:00

roger wyoming II wrote:^ I was a bit encouraged though as it seems like there may not be many actual lay-offs.... am I reading that right? Sounds like the union rep was informed of relocations to other facilities in downtown and the county and not lay-offs. If its more of consolidation the damage won't be as bad as feared and of course a rather attractive tenant-ready building will be available for any new-comers.

I kinda get a "shut down by attrition" feel - not as direct, but the result is the same

dweebe · Sep 12, 2013#102013-09-12T18:27+00:00

beer city wrote:
roger wyoming II wrote:^ I was a bit encouraged though as it seems like there may not be many actual lay-offs.... am I reading that right? Sounds like the union rep was informed of relocations to other facilities in downtown and the county and not lay-offs. If its more of consolidation the damage won't be as bad as feared and of course a rather attractive tenant-ready building will be available for any new-comers.
I kinda get a "shut down by attrition" feel - not as direct, but the result is the same

If you don't mind, would the last AT&T employee heading to Atlanta or Texas please turn the lights off on their way out?

downtown2007 · Sep 12, 2013#112013-09-12T18:43+00:00

Question is how many of the 2k are relocating downtown. If most are staying downtown the hit won't be bad.

Anglophile · Sep 12, 2013#122013-09-12T20:00+00:00

I bet those employees are really excited about getting to move from CityGarden to a corporate campus in the County where they get to carpool to the nearest Applebee's for lunch.

dweebe · Sep 12, 2013#132013-09-12T20:08+00:00

Anglophile wrote:I bet those employees are really excited about getting to move from CityGarden to a corporate campus in the County where they get to carpool to the nearest Applebee's for lunch.

But what about the ones that won't make the move out of downtown? Now they'll have to go to the old Bell building where (urban rumor has it) there are cockroaches the size of grown house cats.

roger wyoming II · Sep 12, 2013#142013-09-12T20:11+00:00

^ sure those giant roaches aren't just the bean counters?

gregl · Sep 12, 2013#152013-09-12T20:51+00:00

Anglophile wrote:I bet those employees are really excited about getting to move from CityGarden to a corporate campus in the County where they get to carpool to the nearest Applebee's for lunch.

When I worked at AT&T, they moved a number of people from Manchester to the downtown campus (2005-ish?). There was no end to the grumbling of "What do you mean we have to PAY for parking?"

Greg

arch city · Sep 12, 2013#162013-09-12T20:54+00:00

Although the writing was on the wall when AT&T sold the building years ago, the building is already half empty. $1.2-million a month is a lot of money. In ten years, that's a $144-million bucks. They could build a brand new campus with that kind of dough.

If current reports are to be believed, the bright side is that AT&T jobs would still have thousands of jobs downtown. The downside is that downtown St. Louis will have another big empty building at 1.4-million square feet.

Personally, I just think all of the local AT&T offices should be consolidated downtown. I think both Des Peres offices, which are small buildings about 1-mile apart, should move to downtown. The city should allow for a big incentive package and the owner needs to invest in improvements.

Anyway, AT&T has been downsizing its facilities and certain types of positions all across the country in recent years. The company is transitioning. St. Louis still has about 7,100 AT&T workers last I read.

In this age of rapidly-developing technology, the changes are to be expected. However, regional leaders need to be courting AT&T for other ventures/operations/divisions that are relevant for these technological times.

matguy70 · Sep 12, 2013#172013-09-12T23:01+00:00

This has nothing to do with downtown... it has everything to do with the state of telecommunications. STL was Southwestern Bell's/At&t's hub operations for Yellow Pages. YP are a thing of the past pretty much and the company has outsourced YP now. The company primary money making operation is cellular.

From STLToday
Jim Mosby, senior managing director at commercial real estate broker Cassidy Turley, said he believes potential tenants other than AT&T have toured the building recently. Although designed as a single-tenant office tower, the building could be modified to house multiple tenants, Mosby said.

This is an fantastic location with fantastic accessibility and visibility. It is also Missouri's largest office tower / building by area with 1,400,000 square feet.

This could be a good thing too in a way... the building is locked into a sole tenant until 2017 - AT&T. It is prime A real estate in downtown.

dredger · Sep 13, 2013#182013-09-13T01:00+00:00

^Matguy, can certainly understand your argument and appreciate the better outlook on things. As a spouse of an ATT employee who started out with the name change to SBC, the telecommunication changes have been dramatic over the last ten years from even my outside perspective. From SBC buying out ATT, to changing its name, to ATT buying out Bell South, the major out sourcing push (the big winner regionally was AMDOCS who has kept its corporate presence in the county) and from selling off the yellow pages.

The tough part to stomach is when was the last time that St. Louis downtown had a major corporate relocation, either within the region or out of town? Even Detriot has had a couple major relocations from the exburbs to its downtown in the last couple of years. Every major corporate/St. Louis company expansion outside of the urban core has been campus expansions not relocations. I'm sorry, but have a tough being optimistic when that amount of space comes online.

moorlander · Sep 13, 2013#192013-09-13T01:09+00:00

matguy70 wrote:
From STLToday
Jim Mosby, senior managing director at commercial real estate broker Cassidy Turley, said he believes potential tenants other than AT&T have toured the building recently. Although designed as a single-tenant office tower, the building could be modified to house multiple tenants, Mosby said.

I'm sure Laclede Gas toured it.

Anglophile · Sep 13, 2013#202013-09-13T04:52+00:00

matguy70 wrote:This has nothing to do with downtown... it has everything to do with the state of telecommunications. STL was Southwestern Bell's/At&t's hub operations for Yellow Pages. YP are a thing of the past pretty much and the company has outsourced YP now. The company primary money making operation is cellular.

It doesn't matter whether the state of downtown office real estate caused ATT to leave. What matters is that downtown is about to lose a potentially large number of warm bodies and we're going to have a 44-story building that is completely empty in the middle of our downtown. This is bad news no matter how anybody tries to spin it.

arch city · Sep 13, 2013#212013-09-13T05:10+00:00

I like matguy's optimism.

I too believe this big building - with high visibility - could snag tenants. It's going to be a challenge, but I think the high visibility could have enormous potential for landing a tenant. Also, because the building hasn't sat rotting for decades the chances for landing a big tenant improves, I think.

Question: How trashed is the building?

I assume the building should be fairly turnkey-ready for major tech, telecom, IT or financial services firms. It could be used to lure such a firm, a division or subsidiary from outside of the region to downtown. Although at nearly 30-years old, I am sure the structure needs a lot of work and updates.

Personally, I think this is a perfect opportunity for Boeing IT and Express Scripts. Express Scripts needs a real corporate headquarters. Express Scripts corporate, accounting, HR etc. downtown and its minions and worker bees work on the campuses.

This might also be a good opportunity for Edwards Jones to expand downtown versus in West St. Louis County.

Downtown and the region might not see much new speculative corporate construction for awhile - only built-to-suit or small corporate projects.

Across the country, however, there isn't a whole lot of speculative corporate offices going up except in the usual places.

downtown2007 · Sep 13, 2013#222013-09-13T12:44+00:00

News caught City Hall off guard.

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - A City Hall spokesperson said Thursday that she was surprised to hear of AT&T’s plans to vacate the downtown St. Louis building it has called home since 1986.

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2013/09/12/ ... -downtown/

DogtownBnR · Sep 13, 2013#232013-09-13T12:51+00:00

The best strategy at this point, is for the owners to slowly fill the building with multiple small or mid-sized companies. Over time, this building can be filled. It may not be as fast as luring a major tenant, but doing so would not be easy. As mentioned by Jeff Rainford, it is not in the best interest of the City, to have companies moving from other parts of Downtown, into this building, in essence, robbing Peter to pay Paul. It would be easy to fill this building and many more, if so many St. Louis corporations were not located in suburban campuses. Just imagine if all of the Fortune 500 companies here, were located Downtown. That alone, would transform Downtown.
Back to my main point, this building needs to be leased out floor by floor, built to the needs of each individual tenant, like Met Square IMO.

debaliviere · Sep 13, 2013#242013-09-13T13:03+00:00

Might be a good home for TRex.

dweebe · Sep 13, 2013#252013-09-13T14:43+00:00

downtown2007 wrote:News caught City Hall off guard.

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - A City Hall spokesperson said Thursday that she was surprised to hear of AT&T’s plans to vacate the downtown St. Louis building it has called home since 1986.

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2013/09/12/ ... -downtown/

It's easy to get caught off guard when all you do is stick your fingers in your ears while chanting "Lalalalala everything is fine. Everything is great. Lalalalala." [/snark]