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ST. LOUIS — The deal to buy and redevelop downtown’s long-vacant AT&T tower is off, said sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

Advantes Group had a $300 million plan to transform the 44-story building into a “vertical city� with a hotel, apartments and office space. It had received broad political support with historic tax credits and other local incentives. Advantes was expected to close on the deal to buy the property, about six blocks northwest of Busch Stadium, from the New York-based owner by January.

It’s unclear why the deal is not moving forward. Advantes owner Brian Minges and building owner SomeraRoad Inc. both declined to comment.

The 1.4 million-square-foot tower, at 909 Chestnut Street, has been a long-standing albatross — one of three large, vacant structures in downtown St. Louis that have come to represent a stagnant central business district.

Downtown boosters promised to keep hunting for a company to tackle the giant project.

“We appreciate their efforts to develop this building and we will continue our work with the city to find a developer for this building and drive investment into the metro’s urban core,� said Tony Wyche, a spokesman for regional business group Greater St. Louis Inc., which has made downtown a focus.

St. Louis Development Corp., the city’s economic development agency, said in a statement that it supports a redevelopment of the tower but added that it “cannot comment on a private developer’s plans.�

The skyscraper was built in 1986 for Southwestern Bell Co. at a time when corporations wanted palatial headquarters and downtown St. Louis had more business.

In 2006, the company — by then AT&T — sold the tower to a real estate investment trust for $205 million and leased it back for its St. Louis workers.

But by 2017, with its headquarters in Texas and far fewer employees in downtown St. Louis, AT&T had begun to move employees to other nearby buildings, leaving 909 Chestnut essentially empty. That same year, U.S. Bank sued the owner and foreclosed on the property.

The building languished in receivership for years, until SomeraRoad bought it last year for just $4.1 million. Bondholders at the time held about $107 million in debt on the building.

SomeraRoad had approached St. Louis-based Advantes about taking on a redevelopment. The company succeeded in getting the building on the National Register of Historic Places, a designation that allowed Advantes to access about $80 million in state and federal tax credits.

The tower was in Advantes’ wheelhouse — the company has focused on historic redevelopments in Laclede’s Landing and at former school buildings throughout the city.

But it would have been the largest project Advantes had undertaken.