Officials at Taconic Investment Partners of New York and Benenson Capital of Charlotte confirm the wholesale telecom distributor will be occupying the space as a new network center, according to a published report. Taconic and Benenson paid $40 million for the former Macy's building in 2000.

Level 3 had formally leased the property in late 2000 and invested $1 million in retrofitting the structure. But the firm held off occupying the space when the high-tech market crashed in mid-2001. Level 3 owns a national network of 20,000 miles of fiber-optic cable that is sold to customers such as Microsoft, Verizon and AOL.

The Colorado-based company decided to use the space this year after buying bankrupt Genuity of Woburn, MA in February. Cox Communications of Atlanta is one of Level 3's major customers, owns The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and is a majority shareholder in Cox Communications.