New owner of St. Louis’ 36-year-old AT&T tower seeks national historic status | Local Business

ST. LOUIS — How a lot historical past can an workplace tower inbuilt 1986 have?

The brand new proprietor of the previous AT&T constructing in downtown St. Louis — a abandoned skyscraper of glass and metal — desires it to be listed within the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations. That designation may internet the proprietor sufficient subsidies to assist safe the constructing’s future.

New York-based SomeraRoad Inc., which purchased the 44-story constructing for $4.1 million in April, is arguing the tower is value such a nomination, due to its post-modern design and globally famend architect, St. Louis agency HOK.

Being within the Nationwide Register may enable SomeraRoad to obtain state and federal historic tax credit that might assist pay for its redevelopment.

The Nationwide Register of Historic Locations is the nation’s official checklist of buildings and websites the Nationwide Park Service says is worthy of preservation and safety. There are 1000’s within the register, from a dam and water-storage reservoir in California to the Wall Avenue Historic District in New York Metropolis. The designation is considerably symbolic and doesn’t imply a property can’t be demolished or altered, until native legislation dictates in any other case. However the register generally is a windfall for builders: Tax credit can rise into the tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} for large tasks.

The St. Louis Preservation Board is anticipated to overview SomeraRoad’s request for the constructing at its 4 p.m. meeting Monday. If authorised, the board will direct the town’s Cultural Sources Workplace to endorse the property for the Nationwide Register.

The outdated workplace constructing, vacant since 2017, will probably require thousands and thousands of {dollars} so as to be tailored for a brand new use in a struggling central enterprise district that has fewer main corporations than ever earlier than.

SomeraRoad has not but publicized its redevelopment plans for the property, which occupies a whole metropolis block at 909 Chestnut Avenue, just a few blocks north of Busch Stadium.

Somera founder Ian Ross referred inquiries to Rosin Preservation, the Kansas Metropolis-based agency SomeraRoad employed to steer its Nationwide Register nomination.

“The rule of thumb for the Nationwide Register is that the constructing ought to be 50 years of age,” Rachel Consolloy of Rosin Preservation mentioned in an e-mail. “Nonetheless, you may nominate a property for reaching significance inside the final 50 years whether it is of remarkable significance.”

Rosin Preservation and SomeraRoad consider the constructing’s post-modernism structure makes it a major instance of the work of HOK, beforehand often called Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum.

HOK designed the tower within the Nineteen Eighties for AT&T, then often called Southwestern Bell. The stepped prime of the constructing, Consolloy mentioned, is a delicate reference to a different Southwestern Bell constructing close by that reveals how HOK “expertly used the environment to tell design.”

The Cultural Sources Workplace is recommending the Preservation Board approve the advice. That will enable the town to organize a report for Missouri’s State Historic Preservation Workplace in help of the nomination.

If authorised Monday, then the nomination will probably be introduced on July 15 to the Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in Jefferson Metropolis earlier than heading to the Nationwide Park Service. The property is anticipated to be within the Nationwide Register by late September, Consolloy mentioned.

Rosin Preservation has helped a number of properties underneath the age of fifty get listed within the Nationwide Register: the “Flashcube Building” and Kemper Area — each erected within the Seventies in Kansas Metropolis.