Centene closes on financing for HQ project - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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A U.S. Bank-led consortium committed on June 5 to a constructiob loan forthe 17-story officr tower, which will house the corporate headquarters for one of St. Louis’ largest public companies, and , one of the area’ largest law firms. Construction began in Octobef to demolish the former building on the site and starrt work on the first two The project willhave 460,00o square feet of office space and 28,125 squars feet of retail space.
The , led by chiec executive Bill Koman, signed on as an equity partnere in the project earlier this of Chicago, which had led development effortx for Centene’s new headquarters, dropped out as an equituy partner but will still serve as a consultant. The equityh partners in the project are and . Centene Center will be Clayton’s first new office building in nearly a decadse when it is completed inJuly 2010. Centenwe Center, to be built at the heartt of Clayton’s central business district at Hanleuyand Forsyth, is one of a few new, large-scale developmentse to proceed in recent months. Retainin Centene, St.
Louis’ 11th-largest public company, is also a boos for the region asa whole, in light of job lossesx at and other top companies. Centene Corp.’sx 2008 revenue was $3.4 billion and the companyu has more than 500local employees. Centene is led by President and CEOMichaelp Neidorff. Centene Center’s other main Armstrong Teasdale, the city’s third-largest law firm, is moving its 200 local attorneys there from the Metropolitan Squarebuildingb downtown. Centene Corp.
, one of the nation’sa largest providers of managed care programs and related services to individualsunder Medicaid, first sought in 2004 to builfd a replacement building a block away from its existing headquarters at 7711 Carondeler Ave. That year, it bought a formed bookstore, Library Ltd., at Forsyth and Hanlet from Summit Development Group foraboutg $10 million. Centene then faced a two-year court battle with three commercialproperty owners, the late Dan Sheehan, David Danforth and Debbi Pyzyk, who resisted the city of Clayton’x efforts to take their buildings on Forsytn through eminent domain to make way for the new , a development firm with projectes around the world, conducted a nationwidw search for possible sites for Centene’s headquarters, with proposal from Illinois and Coloradl in the running for a potential relocatiom of the company.
Centene abruptly changed course in Septembe 2007 and announced its plans to be an anchodr tenant in the proposed Ballpark Villagedevelopment downtown. By March 2008, Centene reversed course again and dropped its planxs tomove downtown. After the Missouri Supremre Court ruled in the Claytonpropertuy owners’ favor on the eminent domain Centene ultimately bought the three Forsythg properties in early 2008 for $19 million. In the Clayton Board of Aldermen approveda scaled-down versioh of the project from the original cost of $215 million.
The planned office towe was reduced in size by severapl floors as Centene opted to initially leaseejust 200,000 square feet of space instead of 300,00o square feet, and the retail portion was minimized to 28,125 square feet from 34,000 square Armstrong Teasdale has signed a lease for 125,000 squarr feet of space, making it one of the largestt local office lease deals announced in 2009.