The owner of downtown St. 亚洲无码鈥 former AT&T tower wants to reimagine the vacant property not as a 44-story office building but a 鈥渧ertical city鈥 that could be home to hundreds of residents, office workers and hotel guests.
Marketing materials by Colliers commercial real estate firm show New York-based SomeraRoad Inc. is pursuing a mixed-use redevelopment of the historic building, at 909 Chestnut Street, about six blocks northwest of Busch Stadium. It is rebranding the property as 鈥淭he Beacon on Chestnut鈥 and touts it as an 鈥渁menity-rich vertical city.鈥
The brochure shows a spa, rooftop pool, garden and restaurant, over 300 penthouse and regular apartments, about 10 floors 鈥 300,000 square feet 鈥 of office space, and a 150-room boutique hotel that would occupy four floors. Tenants could move into the office space by January 2026 for a lease rate of $20 per square foot, materials show.
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The brochure follows a series of moves SomeraRoad has made to lessen the financial burden of ownership and redevelopment of the 1.4 million-square-foot building after the real estate developer bought the downtown tower in April for $4.1 million.
The property will likely require millions of dollars in order to be adapted for a new use in a struggling central business district and a market that is tepid on office space unless it is new or heavily renovated.
But marketing materials don鈥檛 guarantee a redevelopment is moving forward. City records show SomeraRoad has not yet applied for building permits, which would indicate some activity at the property. And Colliers has marketed other redevelopment plans by the former owner that never got off the ground.
Ian Ross, founder and principal of SomeraRoad, declined to comment on the plans. Colliers鈥 Tony Kennedy, who is marketing the property along with Rocky Stenger, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
AT&T鈥檚 predecessor, Southwestern Bell Co., built the tower as its headquarters in the late 1980s.
The former AT&T tower has been vacant since September 2017, when its namesake relocated 2,000 employees to nearby buildings. That same year, U.S. Bank sued the owner and foreclosed on the building. The building had been in receivership 鈥 bondholders held about $107 million in debt on the building 鈥 until SomeraRoad bought it this year.
In September, the National Register of Historic Places the 36-year-old property , giving SomeraRoad the ability to apply for historic tax credits to help in the redevelopment. The city of St. 亚洲无码 also agreed to lower the appraised value from on $14.1 million to $9.2 million, the amount the property last appraised for in August 2021, which would reduce its property tax levy.
SomeraRoad is known for being creative with its real estate holdings. The company partnered with the city of Hazelwood to offer grants for entrepreneurs that could use the money for startup capital and rent at Village Square, an office and retail property at the Lindbergh Boulevard and Interstate 270 in Hazelwood.
SomeraRoad invested around $4 million into that Hazelwood center, bringing the occupancy up from 41% to 71% in three years.