ST. LOUIS 鈥 The vacant former AT&T tower downtown has sold again, nearly a year after an effort to develop it fell through.
Real estate development firm The Goldman Group of Boston bought the 44-story office building last week, real estate records show. A sale price was not publicly available.
The seller, New York-based SomeraRoad Inc., declined to comment. The Goldman Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Steph Kukuljan and other business reporters bring you insights into St. 不良研究所导航网址-area real estate and development.
A spokeswoman for St. 不良研究所导航网址 Development Corp., the city鈥檚 economic development arm, said the agency had not yet received any redevelopment proposals.
鈥淲e look forward to working with the new owner to redevelop the iconic building in the heart of downtown,鈥 the spokeswoman, Sara Freetly, said in an email.
The 1.4 million-square-foot tower, which occupies an entire city block at 909 Chestnut Street, has been a long-standing albatross 鈥 one of three large, vacant structures in downtown that have come to represent a stagnant central business district.
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But it鈥檚 unclear whether the soft real estate market will foster a successful revitalization.
The skyscraper was built in 1986 for Southwestern Bell Co.
In 2006, the company, by then AT&T, sold the tower to a real estate investment trust for $205 million and leased it back for its St. 不良研究所导航网址 workers.
But AT&T vacated the building in 2017 and consolidated into its smaller property next door. That same year, U.S. Bank sued the owner and foreclosed on the property.
The building remained vacant and languished in receivership for years, until SomeraRoad bought it in 2022 for just $4.1 million.
Bondholders at the time held about $107 million in debt on the building.
SomeraRoad never publicized a plan for the property. But the firm was successful in getting the tower listed in the National Register of Historic Places 鈥 despite not yet being 40 years old 鈥 which can enable developers to access millions of dollars in tax credits.
Last year, local developer Advantes Group had the building under contract to buy. The company, known for its work on Laclede鈥檚 Landing, planned a $300 million redevelopment that would have added a hotel, apartments and other amenities, which would have made it Advantes鈥 largest endeavor to date.
But Advantes wasn鈥檛 able to close on the deal, and the property later went up for auction.
It鈥檚 unclear if The Goldman Group acquired the building from the auction.
The commercial real estate market has experienced headwinds due to the rise of remote work and higher interest rates, bottlenecking funding for deals. New office developments have all but tanked across the country. That鈥檚 prompted some in the industry to warn of a domino effect called 鈥doom loop鈥 in which empty office buildings struggle to attract tenants, causing cities to lose out on tax money.
Some real estate owners and developers are looking to convert outdated office buildings into apartments 鈥 the notion got key federal funding 鈥 but industry insiders warn that not every building will be able to be retrofitted.