A little over a year ago the Goldman Group purchased the AT&T building for around $3.55 million. Now they're pinning their hopes on redeveloping the 1.4 million square foot tower on the Missouri House, urging them to pass a bill creating tax credits for redeveloping empty office space into residential.
Managing Partner Charles Goldman shares with KMOX their preliminary plans for the building. He says their vision is to gut the tower and convert the space into 600 market rate apartments, a robotic valet vehicle service and 80,000 square feet of retail and public spaces, with a list of amenities that would rival a small town.
Some of the amenities and features Goldman named include:
Multiple swimming pools
Fitness and wellness centers on par with commercial gyms
Full length basketball court
Pickleball courts
Indoor track
Indoor dog park
Indoor event space with seating for three hundred
Grocery store
Pharmacy
Retail shops
Clubhouse
Cigar lounge
Poker room
Game room
Bowling Alley
Golf simulation
Rooftop 360 restaurant
Goldman wasn't willing to share their renderings yet but described some of the visual elements of their plans. A grand atrium lobby with a 100' wide chandelier piece, a 30' waterfall feature with LED light shows similar to ones seen at the Hard Rock Casino in Miami and LaGuardia Airport in New York. The vehicle valet would be encased in glass, showcasing vehicles as they're transported to and from their drivers.
"Many of these features are being designed deliberately to create that kind of a 'tiktok moment', to create positive PR for St. Louis.
However, the AT&T Tower's redevelopment, amenities and the 'TikTok moments,' the Goldman Group hopes to bring might not come without tax incentives.
"The market is not strong enough to support the sky high construction costs."
He says the return on investment for major redevelopments in St. Louis isn't there without tax incentives. He says this goes not just for AT&T Tower but also the Railway Exchange Building.
"In markets where construction costs are greater than potential revenue that creates a market failure." Goldman adds "incentives are not nice or important but necessary."
So how much would their proposal cost to see their plans come to life? Goldman says they anticipate construction costs to be over $350 million. As the tower sits empty, the AT&T building only generates property tax revenue, and not much of it. Goldman says typically real estate redevelopment dollars generate economic impacts around a 3:1 ratio.
"That investment alone could result in $1 billion in total economic output." Goldman said, describing the impact that could be had just during the construction phase.
Currently Senate Bill 35 sits in front of the Missouri House after being passed by the Senate. It would give tax credits to developers who convert empty office use space to predominately residential use. There are less than two weeks remaining in the session.
Senate Bill 35's sponsor, Senator Steven Roberts, said in a statement “this bill addresses two of Missouri’s most pressing challenges: the decline of our historic main streets and the growing gap between vacant office space and the need for housing,” adding “downtown St. Louis is the front door to the region—and revitalizing it is key to attracting investment, workforce talent, and energy statewide... I urge my colleagues in the House to recognize the urgency of this moment and join us in moving this bill forward.”