Luken sells Tivoli Center for $2.7M to investment group
Chattanooga businessman Henry Luken, once the biggest landlord in Chattanooga, has sold another one of his downtown properties.
The Tivoli Center office building, a 50,435square-foot office erected in 1900 and adjacent to the city-owned Tivoli Theater, was sold last week to an investment group based in Dexter, Mo.
The four-story building at 701 Broad St. is only partially occupied, serving as the office headquarters for the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera and a handful of legal, accounting and marketing firms.
Luken bought the building in 2010 “because I had a customer that wanted to move into it, but it just didn’t happen, so I moved on,” Luken said. “I’ve still got a few buildings left in Chattanooga (including the home of Luken Communications on Eighth Street) but not much anymore. I’m taking my licks and going to places that like
my money more.”
A limited liability partnership formed last month by investors from Missouri, Tivoli Center Chattanooga LLC, bought the Tivoli Center last week for $2.7 million, or more than $400,000 less than what the property was appraised to be worth by the Hamilton County Assessor’s office.
Luken acquired the building along with other properties after buying the Stone Fort Land Co.
from former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker shortly before Corker was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006.
Luken has since liquidated most of his Chattanooga offices while he continues to invest in seven area golf courses, 80 television stations, a yacht-building business and other enterprises, including a new LED lighting control business.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfree press.com or at 757-6340.