urbanSTL

Must be the top of the computer building; not nearly high enough for 909 Chestnut.

^Was about to say that. Proximity to the roof of Peabody is a pretty clear giveaway. Also, it does say AT&T and 909 Chestnut is no longer that, while 80whatever odd still is.

Bidding starts Monday, so I hope everyone got their stimulus checks deposited. Good luck!

Edit: Well, nevermind, the auction listing for 909 Chestnut at Real Insight Marketplace seems to have been removed...

sc4mayor wrote: ↑

Mar 22, 2021

Auction was called off...909 received an offer from a buyer late last week.  The bond investors pulled the auction as a sign of good faith to the buyer.
https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... d-off.html

Let the speculation begin.  It must have been a somewhat legit offer from a establish firm.   So my one cent guess is Clark/Clayco development firm came back with here is my offer and take or leave it.  

sc4mayor wrote: ↑

Mar 22, 2021

Auction was called off...909 received an offer from a buyer late last week.  The bond investors pulled the auction as a sign of good faith to the buyer.
https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... d-off.html

Well it can't be Somera Road, Seneca, or CRG. They all looked at it previously and backed off. So now the mystery begins. Who could it be?

Brian Hayden? 

wabash wrote: ↑

Mar 22, 2021

Brian Hayden? 

Dear God.

Can't help to think how 909 Chestnut would be an easy win for a big tech and or financial firm to come in and make a legit fly over country presence at a pretty cheap price point compared to coastal cities and say even Austin or Nasheville..  Heck, Google announced its 7 billion 2021 capital program & another 10,000 employees.   This would be change in the pocket for Google to put in 1,000 to 2,000 employees.    The same for a large financial outfit like  JP Morgan if they would want to move some back office out of New York. 

There was a blurb in the P-D article that I don't think has ever been made public before. That is, that, "Bondholders hold some $100 million in debt on the building".

It's little wonder they aren't in a hurry to sell.

urbanitas wrote: ↑

Mar 23, 2021

There was a blurb in the P-D article that I don't think has ever been made public before. That is, that, "Bondholders hold some $100 million in debt on the building".

It's little wonder they aren't in a hurry to sell.

Not sure I follow. You're saying they're not in a hurry to sell because they'd rather wait to see if they can get more of their $100 million back? 

wabash wrote: ↑

Mar 23, 2021

urbanitas wrote: ↑

Mar 23, 2021

There was a blurb in the P-D article that I don't think has ever been made public before. That is, that, "Bondholders hold some $100 million in debt on the building".

It's little wonder they aren't in a hurry to sell.

Not sure I follow. You're saying they're not in a hurry to sell because they'd rather wait to see if they can get more of their $100 million back? 

Yes. They aren't going to get $100 million obviously, but they believe the value of the building is at rock bottom at the moment, and they are speculating that the downtown market will improve, increasing it's value.  So, they have little incentive to sell at this point, other than the property tax and maintenance costs.

Headliner Finance and Tech firms have the money to build/lease trophy offices and their talent seems to require it. AT&T could make more sense for a big but less profitable business.

ldai_phs wrote: ↑

Mar 23, 2021

AT&T could make more sense for a big but less profitable business.

Like the federal government.

Bizjournals ran article on mayoral candidate comments on what they would like to see for 909 Chestnut.  Behind paywalls so not sure if anything insightful, meaningful or even a tidbit of new info has been provided

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... tower.html

dredger wrote: ↑

Mar 27, 2021

Bizjournals ran article on mayoral candidate comments on what they would like to see for 909 Chestnut.  Behind paywalls so not sure if anything insightful, meaningful or even a tidbit of new info has been provided

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... tower.html

2021 will usher in a new mayor for the city of St. Louis and, potentially, a new developer for its largest, vacant office building. 

The former AT&T tower, at 909 Chestnut St., in downtown's central business district could have a new owner after an auction set to happen this week was called off when bondholders received an offer from a buyer. 

The building, once the headquarters for AT&T and its predecessor Southwestern Bell, is the state's largest office building by square footage at 1.4 million square feet. It has sat vacant since 2017 when AT&T moved out. 

Although no further details about the deal — including the buyer — are known, it could mean the start of a long-awaited turnaround for the property and the commercial real estate market downtown, which has the region's largest office vacancy rate. 

The Business Journal asked the two candidates for St. Louis mayor, Treasurer Tishaura Jones and Alderwoman Cara Spencer, what they think should happen with the building:

"The AT&T building is a fantastic opportunity to bring an anchor institution to our downtown. If we’re not able to find someone to take over the entire building, we’ll need to explore multiple uses and multiple tenants. The next mayor, in partnership with (St. Louis Development Corp.), is going to need to be a champion and cheerleader for our city and help bring businesses to our downtown," Jones said. "However, I will also be intentional about our investments north of Delmar and will not lead with tax incentives where they are not necessary."

"The vacant AT&T building is a serious challenge for St. Louis — the city with the highest vacancy rate of any downtown in America – twice that of Detroit. Downtown is the tax base of the city and the face of the region, and the vacant AT&T building downtown is a critically important building with over 1 million square feet, making it the second largest building in Missouri," Spencer said. "If there is no sale, I would immediately work with the bondholders to encourage a national marketing campaign for this signature building. Independent of that, I plan to press the Biden/Harris administration for enhanced opportunity zone benefits for cities, such as St. Louis, which have a high poverty rate, to make the building and the city as a whole attractive for development. I also plan to press the state legislature to adopt state opportunity zones, as several states have done, to piggyback on the federal benefits, which would make Missouri investments more attractive. The AT&T building had 3,000 jobs and could once again. It could also be a mixed use of commercial and residential, but it is vital for the city and the region that it be redeveloped."

Any rumblings out there on who might be the possible buyer?  If there was a legit offer or if someone simply came across with a low ball offer but above auction minimum.   Just enough interest to give bondholders to put a pause on the auction

I don' think it is as dire for commercial office in the new normal of WFH and Zoom as some of the articles out there are stating.  They NY times article noted on a different thread popped up in my local Sunday paper this past weekend.  However, the new norm is not necessarily good for big empty office towers whether thy are in NY/San Fran let alone in the Midwest... throw in a Midwest city that is not Chicago and does not have a airport hub to boot.   So I would assume that the bondholders at are getting close to admitting to themselves that the loss to take is now instead of hanging on and literally having no offers at some point.    Heck, you could probably make the argument that if infrastructure bill gets passed with an increase in corporate tax hike it might very well be the best time to sell for a big loss depending on who the bondholders are & what tax implications are out there.  

Another month has passed and still no word on this. 

Agree dredger, it's hard to see any single entity taking this on whole. How many underground parking spaces are there? Maybe a developer can market this for the ultra rich and configure around that many units for sale. Condos taking up an entire floor starting at 10MM...

Can any of our connected posters offer insight into the buyer or inside rumors?

Again as we've seen with BPV, I can't see a homerun major corporate tenant pitching up here.

I'd perhaps like to see them try and do something with UMSL or STLCC in terms of a Downtown campus or center.  Classrooms, conference facilities, offices, workspace. Residential accommodation for students. We need more students in the area.

Between things like that, residential, smaller office users and adapting the ground floor for retail use I feel thats the way forward and the whole building isn't going to get leased in one go. Energizer, Enterprise or Centene aren't leasing it either thats for sure.

pdm_ad wrote: ↑

Jul 06, 2021

Another month has passed and still no word on this. 

Agree dredger, it's hard to see any single entity taking this on whole. How many underground parking spaces are there? Maybe a developer can market this for the ultra rich and configure around that many units for sale. Condos taking up an entire floor starting at 10MM...

Can any of our connected posters offer insight into the buyer or inside rumors?

There's been bid applications made for an apparent residential conversion, but I can't access what it entails. I found a marketing thing, asked the developer about it, and then they removed it without telling me more detailing some plans for the building. It may have been a typo, but it said only 34 apartments and included a redesigned entrance way on the first few floors and a 45th floor rooftop lounge/amenity. The developer is a small one with this idea though, so I dont expect them to do it.

However, the thought crossed my mind that this could end up being a partnership between multiple developers with different areas of expertise. The one residential developer does the 34 units, and another developer does over 100 more. One developer does office, another does hotel, and so on. We'll see though.

cut the building down to size say by at least a third