AT&T Completes $53 Million Sale Leaseback of Cleveland Office Tower

The Plain Dealer - April 5, 2007

The latest prize in what has become a derby for downtown Cleveland office property: the 16-story AT&T building at Erieview Plaza.

Inland American Real Estate Trust Inc. of Chicago has paid $53 million for the San Antonio phone company's Northeast Ohio base, AT&T spokesman Bob Beasley said. The deal includes more than 450,000 square feet of office space and an attached 290-space garage.

AT&T will keep its roughly 1,100 employees - mostly administrative and call-center workers - in the building for at least 10 years as part of the sale-leaseback deal.

Previously known to Cleveland-area customers as SBC Communications, Ameritech and Ohio Bell, AT&T had amassed a surplus of property through a series of mergers. Beasley noted the company does not own its national headquarters campus in San Antonio.

More significant to the local real estate market, the AT&T building is the latest in a line of downtown office complexes to change hands. Since 2005, new owners collectively have spent more than $500 million on five properties, including the city's top trophies: the BP and Key towers.

Other downtown office towers that have sold include Fifth Third Center and the old East Ohio Gas Building. Another, Eaton Center, was put on the market in January.

"This is the best market I've seen in years," said David Browning, regional managing director for CB Richard Ellis, the firm that represented AT&T in the deal. Sphere: Related Content