One of downtown St. Louis' sizable office towers is quietly up for grabs, and nearly half of it is sitting empty. The roughly 350,000-square-foot Locust Building, a 12-story property at 1015 Locust Street, has hit the market this month with about 47 percent of its space leased. A data center on several lower floors helps anchor the tenant roster, but a lot of upper-floor space is waiting for a new game plan.
City appraisal records peg the building's value at just $3.57 million, a number that sits well below what the current owners paid in 2008, when they acquired the property for roughly $6.1 million. That gap is the kind of thing buyers and lenders will scrutinize alongside any talk of redevelopment potential.
According to the St. Louis Business Journal, brokers marketing 1015 Locust are pitching a mix of near-term cash flow and value-add upside. Their materials highlight the city's appraisal figure, the 2008 purchase price and a storyline that leans heavily on lease-up and repositioning. Local reporting frames the listing as part of a broader shuffle of downtown properties at a time when owners are weighing office conversions and other changes.
Listing details and occupancy
Commercial listings show the building totals about 350,292 square feet and includes roughly 170 parking spaces, with occupancy sitting in the high-40-percent range. A listing page on Brevitas notes that a long-term data-center tenant occupies several of the lower floors and helps cover operating costs while many upper floors remain available. Brokers point to that in-place income and the option to assume existing debt as reasons an investor might wade in despite the amount of lease-up work still required.
The property is also posted on Crexi, where offering materials and broker contacts are available to prospective buyers.
Redevelopment potential
The offering memorandum leans into the building's status within an Opportunity Zone and points to the potential use of federal and Missouri historic tax credits for a buyer looking to convert or significantly upgrade the asset. PropertyShark and other commercial data services also note that the top portion of the building could be vacated by the first quarter of 2028, which might open the door for an office-to-residential conversion or a fresh take on creative office space.
Brokers argue that those incentives, paired with targeted capital improvements, are what make the Locust Building worth a look even with occupancy stuck below 50 percent.
Market context
Downtown St. Louis is not a uniform story of struggling towers. Some buildings have seen occupancy tick up after renovations and more proactive leasing efforts, and landlords are quick to use those examples. In its reporting on a string of recent deals at Peabody Plaza, CBRE highlights how upgrades and hands-on ownership helped secure fifteen leases at that 400,000-square-foot property.
That kind of turnaround story is the comparison point brokers are leaning on as they talk up 1015 Locust, suggesting that the right buyer could either chase a steady-office play, pursue a conversion strategy or try a hybrid approach.
Deal mechanics
Salient Realty Group and other brokers are steering the sale effort, with marketing platforms hosting the key documents. Public listings do not show an asking price, so interested parties are being nudged toward direct outreach and formal letters of intent. Sites like Crexi carry the offering memorandum and contact information for the brokerage team.
Local developers and city officials quoted in coverage of the listing suggest that an owner willing to invest in upgrades could find upside if downtown leasing momentum holds, or even improves, over the next few years.
