ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis commercial real estate brokerage is seeking office tenants for the former AT&T tower downtown in what appears to be a future redevelopment plan that would convert most of the massive building's million-plus square feet to residential, along with office space, retail and a hotel.
Owner SomeraRoad purchased downtown's largest building from bondholders for $4.05 million in April but has yet to publicly discuss its plans for the building, aside from an effort to seek historic status for the tower. SomeraRoad did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and it is unclear where the bid for historic status stands.
A marketing flyer from the St. Louis office of Colliers International identifies the long-vacant building as "The Beacon on Chestnut," and outlines a detailed redevelopment plan that calls for converting most of the 1.2 million-square-foot, 44-story building at 909 Chestnut St. to apartments and penthouses.
The listing brokers, Tony Kennedy and Rocky Stenger of Colliers International, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The former office building has been entirely vacant since its lone tenant, AT&T, relocated in 2017 to a neighboring building downtown. Before SomeraRoad purchased the building earlier this year, it had gone through a series of prospective buyers that never closed a deal.
Opened in 1986 as the headquarters of Southwestern Bell, which later acquired AT&T and assumed its name, the building offered more than a million square feet of vacant office space at a time when demand for downtown office space has decreased as many companies are downsizing to smaller, upgraded office space with more amenities for employees.
But plans for "The Beacon" minimize its use as an office tower. The mixed-use proposal calls for creating what it calls an “amenity-rich vertical city” at AT&T tower with only 300,000 square feet of office space on lower floors of the building, above a 150-room hotel.
More than half of the building's 43 floors would be dedicated to apartments: Floors 31 to 42 would have 120 penthouse apartments, while floors 19-29 would house 198 standard apartments.
At the top would be a pool and "garden amenity" above a restaurant on the 43rd floor. The 30th and 18th levels would be amenity floors, with a spa taking all the seventh floor. The sixth level would be the mechanical floor, and floors 2-5 would house a boutique hotel with 150 rooms. The first floor would have a lobby, retail, and a 24-hour concierge and valet.
The office space would occupy the 8th through 17th floors. According to the flyer, that office space would be move-in ready in January 2026, with leasing listed at $20 per square foot, according to the brochure. Perks for an anchor office tenant would include having its name atop the exterior of the building as well as its own elevator bank separate from the apartments and hotel, according to the brochure.
The marketing positions the new office space firmly in the trend of companies moving to upgraded office space with more amenities, promising a “phenomenal opportunity for office users seeking to re-imagine the workplace experience for their employees, clients, visitors and guests,” inside the “vertical city.”
Building amenities available to office users would entail a rooftop restaurant, a full spa and salon, fitness center, steam and sauna therapy rooms, business center and co-working areas, wireless internet throughout, a dog run, package and locker system, secure bike storage, controlled building access with on-site and remote parking, dog walking and grooming service and dry cleaning service, according to the marketing materials.
Read all of the story at the St. Louis Business Journal website.
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