urbanSTL

St. Louis-based developer Advantes Development Group said Friday the firm is still pursuing a redevelopment of the vacant AT&T tower downtown, the state's largest office building, despite a media report this week that the plan had been dropped.
Gretchen Minges of Advantes said in an email to the Business Journal that the developer is still moving forward with the proposal as previously outlined – an up to $300 million project that would see the vacant 44-story skyscraper become a “vertical city,” with 306 apartments, modern office space, retail and a 300-room hotel, along with shared amenities for use by building tenants.

"Advantes Group remains committed to developing the AT&T Tower and has not abandoned plans. We have worked, and continue to work, on overcoming many obstacles and challenges that arise with transforming a building of this magnitude. We are still very much committed to seeing this vision through for the City of St. Louis and the St. Louis region," Minges said in the email to the Business Journal.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Thursday reported that Advantes' deal to buy the building from its owner, New York-based SomeraRoad, was dead, citing sources with "direct knowledge of the situation."
Representatives of the building's owner, New York-based SomeraRoad, didn't respond to requests for comment.
A spokeswoman for the city's development agency, St. Louis Development Corp., which has worked to advance subsidy deals for the project, said, "SLDC supports the redevelopment of this iconic downtown property, but cannot comment on a private developer’s plans."
The Board of Aldermen voted in February to grant property tax incentives for the redevelopment of the state’s largest office building, which has been vacant since 2017, when sole occupant AT&T left for another nearby building. The tower, at 909 Chestnut St., is about 1.4 million square feet.

The former AT&T tower in downtown St. Louis, the largest office building in the state of Missouri, is scheduled to go on the auction block next month, with a starting bid of $2.5 million.
The 44-story building at 909 Chestnut St., which has been vacant since AT&T consolidated its downtown employees to another building in 2017, will be offered at auction from Dec. 11 to 13, according to an online listing from commercial real estate firm CBRE, which is serving as the broker for the deal.

The office tower, which at more than 1.4 million square feet ranks as the largest in the state of Missouri and in the St. Louis region, is owned by New York-based developer SomeraRoad, which purchased the skyscraper for $4 million in April 2022. SomeraRoad declined to comment on the auction.
After SomeraRoad purchased the property last year, St. Louis-based Advantes Group said it was pursuing a $300 million redevelopment of the building into a “vertical city” called Beacon on Chestnut, with apartments, a 300-room hotel, modernized office space and retail. The city's urban renewal board, the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority, in July voted to issue up to $330 million in industrial revenue bonds to fund construction of the project, along with up to 15 years of property tax abatement.
The redevelopment plan remains attached to the building, even if a different developer moves forward with a project, a spokeswoman for the city of St. Louis' economic development agency previously told the Business Journal.
Advantes Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Gretchen Minges, who owns the firm with her husband, Brian Minges, said in August that the company was still pursuing a redevelopment of the tower, despite a report from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the firm's contract to purchase the building had fallen through.
Advantes Group had originally said it would buy the building in January 2024 for the redevelopment.
The auction listing noted that the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as of last year, and has 42 floors of column-free floor space that make it “ideally suited for conversion to multi-family, hotel or other mixed uses.”

• Two programs combined offer over $35 billion in lending capacity at below-market interest rates, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during a media call on Thursday.

dredger wrote:Is it time for city to buy 909 chestnut?  I just can't think of way that the auction merry go around comes to an end while in the work from home/no office space needed/AI environment & the high interest rates.   

I thought the question was worth asking since I brought up something about Railway exchange building in Laclede's building thread.  Of course, gets into the whole picking winner and losers but believe we are talking about a huge amount of empty square footage that won't be filled by office workers as once was.  

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Dec 12, 2023

^ city cannot do that when it has 20,000 vacant buildings on its rolls that need the same thing.   It would be political suicide for any elected official to propose it.   Now Greater StL Inc for profit real estate arm would make much for sense