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An Entire Skyscraper In Downtown St. Louis Just Sold For Less Than An Apartment In New York
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Former AT&T Center In St. Louis Sold For $3.6M, Remote Work Blamed

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A 44-story high-rise skyscraper recently sold for $3.6 million, a fraction of its 2006 price, reflecting declining demand in the North American office market amid an emerging telecommuting trend.

The former AT&T Center, one of the tallest towers in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, which sold for $205 million in 2006, just changed hands again earlier this month. 

Highlights
  • 44-story St. Louis skyscraper sold for $3.6M, underscoring the drop in office market demand.
  • Once valued at $205M in 2006, the towering property's value crashed to $2.50 per sq. ft.
  • The property's steep discount contrasts with higher commercial real estate prices in NYC.

The 1.46 million-square-foot building located on 909 Chestnut Street is now owned by Boston-based Goldman Group, CoStar reported on April 10.

A St. Louis skyscraper sold at a steep discount amid shifting office market dynamics

Image credits: Wikipedia

The firm bought the property via CoStar Group’s Ten-X auction exchange from SomeraRoad Holdings, a commercial real estate investor and developer that paid just $4.5 million for it two years ago. 

On a per-square-foot basis, the tower’s value over 18 years dropped from about $140 to $2.50, according to CoStar data.

To put this into perspective, an 8,200-square-foot commercial building located in an industrial zone of New York City is typically priced at $4.5 million, as per this Zillow listing.

Moreover, a 2,000-square-foot commercial building located in the heart of the Big Apple can cost about $4.1 million, as shown again on this Zillow listing.

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Image credits: Urban Angle

The block on which the long-vacant St. Louis property sits was declared a decaying area by the St. Louis Planning Commission in 2023, the commercial real estate information news outlet mentioned.

SomeraRoad had reportedly proposed renovating the existing building to develop 306 apartments, 300 hotel rooms, and 37,000 square feet of retail, subsequently reducing the office square footage by 1.2 million square feet.

Nevertheless, the real estate investor’s plan to redevelop the tower never materialized.

Despite plans for redevelopment, the St. Louis tower remains in a decaying area, with proposed renovations never coming to fruition

Image credits: Wampa-One/Flickr

Charles Goldman, principal of new owner Goldman Group, didn’t reportedly say what his firm intended to do with the skyscraper, saying his company was “still digesting the sale.” 

Redeveloping the property may be challenging due to shifts in office space utilization following the COVID-19 pandemic, which hastened the acceptance of remote and hybrid work arrangements.

US office vacancies hit a fresh peak in the first quarter as needs continued to evolve with hybrid work setups, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.

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Image credits: FOX 2 St.Louis

Moreover, vacancies rose to a record 19.8%, a preliminary report revealed, from 19.6% in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The AT&T Tower is the second-largest vacant office building in the US, and it has been empty since 2017, CoStar data showed. 

The largest empty office structure in the country is the 1.59 million-square-foot 5400 Legacy Drive in Plano, Texas. 

Developer NexPoint reportedly paid $125 million for that property in 2018 and planned for it to be the center of a $4 billion life science campus that would include hundreds of apartments and a hotel.

The tower’s value plummeted from $140 to $2.50 per sq. ft over 18 years, sharply contrasting NYC’s commercial property prices

Image credits: zillow.com

Nearly two years into the pandemic, roughly six in ten U.S. workers who said their jobs could mainly be done from home (59%) were working from home all or most of the time, Pew Research Center reported in February 2022.

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The vast majority of these workers (83%) said they were working from home even before the omicron variant started to spread in the US.

Consequently, this marked a decline from October 2020, when 71% of those with jobs that could be done from home were working from home all or most of the time, but it’s still much higher than the 23% who said they teleworked frequently before the coronavirus outbreak. 

“Let’s put this into affordable housing,” a reader commented

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Andréa Oldereide

Andréa Oldereide

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Andréa Oldereide

Andréa Oldereide

Writer, BoredPanda staff

I’m a journalist who works as Bored Panda’s News Team's Senior Writer. The news team produces stories focused on pop culture. Whenever I get the opportunity and the time, I investigate and produce my own exclusive stories, where I get to explore a wider range of topics. Some examples include: “Doberman Tobias the viral medical service dog” and “The lawyer who brought rare uterine cancer that affects 9/11 victims to light”. You've got a tip? email me: andrea.o@boredpanda.com

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As a visual editor in the News team, I look for the most interesting pictures and comments to make each post interesting and informative through images, so that you aren't reading only blocks of text. I joined Bored Panda not that long ago, but in this short amount of time I have covered a wide range of topics: from true crime to Taylor Swift memes (my search history is very questionable because of that).In my freetime, I enjoy spending time at the gym, gaming, binging Great British Bake Off and adding yet another tattoo artist that I would love to get a tattoo from to my pinterest board.

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Karina Babenok

Karina Babenok

Author, BoredPanda staff

As a visual editor in the News team, I look for the most interesting pictures and comments to make each post interesting and informative through images, so that you aren't reading only blocks of text. I joined Bored Panda not that long ago, but in this short amount of time I have covered a wide range of topics: from true crime to Taylor Swift memes (my search history is very questionable because of that).In my freetime, I enjoy spending time at the gym, gaming, binging Great British Bake Off and adding yet another tattoo artist that I would love to get a tattoo from to my pinterest board.

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I_imagine_even_worse_w***s
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

These should be bought up by governments and repurpossed into residential units. I know it's not ideal and would need a lot of work but it's got to be better than the hellscape we're living in at least here anyway. Where even if you can afford property there's nothing available.

Guess Undheit
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is what people mean by walkable cities, places where you live and don't need a vehicle. Meanwhile, the carbrained gas sniffers call this form of capitalism "communism".

Load More Replies...
nicholas nolan
Community Member
6 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Convert it to apartments, with services(shopping, dining, one of those doc-in-the-box type clinics, etc) on the first 2-3 floors.

H2oland@sbcglobal.net
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Actually the original name of this building was “One Bell Center “. I worked for Southwestern Bell , and my department was one of the first to occupy it

Load More Comments
I_imagine_even_worse_w***s
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

These should be bought up by governments and repurpossed into residential units. I know it's not ideal and would need a lot of work but it's got to be better than the hellscape we're living in at least here anyway. Where even if you can afford property there's nothing available.

Guess Undheit
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is what people mean by walkable cities, places where you live and don't need a vehicle. Meanwhile, the carbrained gas sniffers call this form of capitalism "communism".

Load More Replies...
nicholas nolan
Community Member
6 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Convert it to apartments, with services(shopping, dining, one of those doc-in-the-box type clinics, etc) on the first 2-3 floors.

H2oland@sbcglobal.net
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Actually the original name of this building was “One Bell Center “. I worked for Southwestern Bell , and my department was one of the first to occupy it

Load More Comments
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