Monday, January 01, 2007

AT&T Completes $205 Million Sale Leaseback of Regional HQ in St Louis

St Louis Business Journal - December 29, 2006

AT&T's largest property in Missouri, One AT&T Center in downtown St. Louis, has sold to a Chicago-based company for $204.9 million.

At closing, AT&T, the sole tenant in the 1.2 million-square-foot tower at 909 Chestnut St., signed a lease spanning 10 years and nine months to continue to occupy the 42-story building. About 4,800 employees work at One AT&T Center. The company has 9,000 employees in the St. Louis area.

AT&T spokesman Don Brown confirmed the sale was finalized at the end of last week. "There is really no difference for AT&T operationally," Brown said. "The commitment is the same. The work that's done in the building remains the same. This just allows us to focus on telephone, communications and entertainment businesses as opposed to the real estate business."

The buyer, MB REIT, is a joint venture of Inland American Real Estate Trust, one of Inland Real Estate Group's companies. AT&T will pay MB REIT monthly rent of about $1.2 million. The first year's rent will total $14.7 million, with a 2 percent annual increase thereafter. "MB REIT does not intend to make significant repairs and improvements to this property over the next few years," Inland American Real Estate Trust wrote in its Dec. 19 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In August, AT&T announced its plans to sell the building and lease it back. The telecommunications company has completed similar sale/leaseback transactions with real estate it owned elsewhere in the country in the past two years. Sphere: Related Content

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