Interesting Stories of Commercial Real Estate Projects/Ventures?
Hello everyone,

I am curious to hear if you have any interesting stories of historic real estate projects or ventures. An example is One AT&amp;T Center, a 1.4M square foot office building in St. Louis that sold for $205M in 2006 but then sold for $4M in 2022. This was driven by AT&amp;T, who occupied the entire building, vacating during their lease. The building has substantial parking issues, and office demand in downtown St. Louis decreased drastically. The building remains vacant, and the current owner's plans are unknown.

I have a Youtube channel that will dive into stories similar to these and am looking for other ideas, thank you in advance!
[{"id": "iydmpe9", "text": "While minuscule in dollar amounts compared to your example, The Shire development in Bend, OR is one of the wildest one I\u2019ve seen. A hobbit themed housing project, it was meant to be an artist community, with a public stage, garden and other whimsical amenities. It was part of the last housing boom in the aughts and unraveled in the financial collapse of \u201808. A well regarded ER doctor who invested ended up committing suicide by throwing himself into rapids on the Deschutes River. \n\nFour or five of the homes were completed and are still there today.\n\nhttps://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2009/10/the-shire-when-dreams-become-delusions/27770/", "replies": [{"id": "iyduqm8", "text": "This is a prime example of when \"too much money\" meets \"too much alcohol\".\n\n&amp;#x200B;\n\nI've had many nights of drinking and great ideas; fortunately for me, I don't have the money to go for it...", "replies": [{"id": "iydznzx", "text": "&gt;\tCocaine is one helluva drug\u2026\n\nRick James", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "iyeizgq", "text": "I\u2019m a Hobbit FREAK", "replies": [{"id": "iyekqy1", "text": "Well if you have an extra $800k-$1MM laying around you could own one of these:\n\nhttps://www.zillow.com/homedetails/61283-Ring-Bearer-Ct-Bend-OR-97702/87760887_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=txtshare", "replies": [{"id": "izedca5", "text": "no way it\u2019s Ring Bearer Ct, lol", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iydn9gd", "text": "What is your yt channel?", "replies": [{"id": "iydoeqq", "text": "Here is a link to the channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChK8pSqe2w0QpJUvP0u7KAQ", "replies": [{"id": "iydq95t", "text": "Well that's REALLY weird. I'm coincidentally watching your video on rent increases as I'm typing this... I came across it on /r/videos and have it playing on the other monitor. \n\nBut the answer I was going to type out for your question was the Foxconn planned development plan in Mount Pleasant. There's a really good podcast on the story from Reply All", "replies": [], "depth": 3}, {"id": "iye7aoi", "text": "Cool. I have a CRE channel as well. Subscribed", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iydozo2", "text": "There\u2019s a great Instagram page that posts about a lot of projects like this. It\u2019s \u201cdevelopment_fails\u201d. I\u2019ve been following him for a while now and he posts a ton of great examples.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iydtzh8", "text": "44 parking spaces for a 1.4m sq ft building ..... that's insane !!!\n\nWho the hell bought that and let the sky bridge to the parking let get taken down ?", "replies": [{"id": "iye5zzr", "text": "Probably the building owner that had massive deferred maintenance costs and concluded the revenue from 44 parking spaces didn't justify the cost.", "replies": [{"id": "iye9mat", "text": "Watch OP's video on the building, you'll see what I mean.", "replies": [{"id": "iyeeno9", "text": "You could have just explained it. \nThe real mistake was separating ownership of the building from the parking garage connected to the bridge. The landlord could have offered reserved parking to some tenants as an amenity to help with leasing.\n\nThe reality is that as long as the parking garage still exists, there is still adequate parking in the area for tenants in the building. The tenants just now have to walk across the street instead of in a convenient bridge.", "replies": [{"id": "iyefi6x", "text": "That's exactly what I meant ... \"who bought this for $205m and didn't include the bridge to the parking lot and some of the parking lot as well in the purchase\"\n\nIt's ludicrous.  \n\nI also said to watch the video because I thought it was well done and worth watching.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iye7ady", "text": "https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/200_Public_Square\n\nThe building sold at a massive discount to replacement cost when BP moved out in 1996. The building would have sold for even less, but BP sold it with BP leasing a lot of space that remained vacant for years so they could maximize their tax loss through the lease. The building sat mostly vacant for years while the BP lease was in place. \nThis is odd because this is a Class A office building in the heart of Cleveland and was designed with unique corners so several people could have corner offices per floor.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iye8l3s", "text": "Las Vegas has some of the craziest ones with the hotels.\n\nThe Fountain Bleu for example. The land was acquired by Turnberry Associates in 2000, which would eventually begin construction on the $2.9 billion project in 2007. In mid-2009, after the tower was 70% complete, lenders withdrew on $800 million in pre-approved loans. The project soon went into bankruptcy. It's estimated that a total of $2 billion was invested in the project before work was halted. In 2010, Carl Icahn bought the property for $150 million and sold off the furniture and other assets. So far, there doesn't seem to be any interest in tearing the building down, or spending the $1 billion or so needed to finish construction. He then sold it for $600 million to a developer that was partnering with JW Marriott to call it The Drew. Covid struck and they sold it back To The Turnberry Group who is completing the project and set to open 2023. Almost 20 years after the idea was first brought up.\n\nCity Center and The Cosmopolitan are also some pretty crazy ones! The Cosmo they put at a 2 billion dollar loss which I\u2019m unsure you could build a building at a worse time than they did. They just sold the property this year too for a record amount and gave all the employees $1,500 for how much money the owners made on buying it at the low lol", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iye9lkt", "text": "&gt; a 1.4M square foot office building in St. Louis that sold for $205M in 2006 but then sold for $4M in 2022\n\nhttps://www.stltoday.com/business/local/st-louis-at-t-tower-sells-for-4-1-million-a-fraction-of-its-previous/article_7c1a642a-4a78-5e9a-9e4b-e2c4a1a8e0d4.html\n\nThat\u2019s just wild.  Not even $4/sqft", "replies": [{"id": "iyfe00t", "text": "Unreal", "replies": [], "depth": 2}, {"id": "iyfmr58", "text": "Highest and best use is probably a farmers market", "replies": [{"id": "iyhciyt", "text": "I was thinking storage conversion.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iyebwfn", "text": "https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_925_Building\n\nThis building has an interesting history as the second largest building in the world at the time of completion. It has a blimp dock.\nAlthough John D Rockefeller and Standard Oil had relocated from Cleveland to NYC by this time, it is a reflection of the wealth and industry that still existed in Cleveland in the 1920's.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iyfhz1r", "text": "I suspect, when the building sold for $204M, the price was based on the term of the ATT lease and a market competitive cap rate.  On vacating the property, ATT and the buyer would have negotiated a termination payment that would make the buyer whole along with their anticipated return.  Re-selling the building provided a certain exit cost allowing for an accurate calculation of a lease termination fee.  \n\nJust my two cents\u2026", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iyfq1s3", "text": "Would it even be possible to convert into multifamily? Or some combination of condo/multifamily/hotel", "replies": [{"id": "iyfvge6", "text": "The deep floor places make residential tough, but hard to imagine how else the building could be utilized.", "replies": [{"id": "iyfw3rc", "text": "yeah i mean it might be tough but when you get the building for such a steal i imagine you have a 8 figure reno budget...", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "iyfxksr", "text": "Do a deep dive on Conley Wolfswinkle and you\u2019ll probably find enough material for a year\u2019s worth of videos. \n\nAlso the lack of water regulations in several Arizona counties leading to Saudi purchases of alfalfa farms and massively depleting the water table in Arizona, in order to ship cattle feed  to Saudi Arabia.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]