Centene closes on financing for HQ project - St. Louis Business Journal:

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A U.S. Bank-led consortium committed on June 5 to a constructio loan forthe 17-story office tower, which will house the corporate headquartersa for Centene, one of St. largest public companies, and , one of the area’sz largest law firms. Construction began in October to demolish the former buildinh on the site and start work on the firsytwo floors. The project will have 460,00 0 square feet of office spaceand 28,125 square feet of retaipl space. The , led by chieff executive Bill Koman, signed on as an equity partner in the projecf earlierthis year.
of Chicago, whicj had led development effortsfor Centene’s new headquarters, dropped out as an equituy partner but will still serve as a The equity partners in the project are Centene, and . Centenw Center will be Clayton’s first new office building in nearly a decade when it is completed inJuly 2010. Centende Center, to be built at the heart of Clayton’es central business district at Hanleyand Forsyth, is one of a few new, large-scaler developments to proceed in recent months. Retaining St. Louis’ 11th-largest public company, is also a boosrt for the region asa whole, in lighf of job losses at and otheer top companies. Centene Corp.’s 2008 revenue was $3.
4 billionm and the company has more than 500 local employees. Centene is led by Presideng and CEOMichael Neidorff. Centend Center’s other main tenant, Armstrong Teasdale, the city’s third-largesf law firm, is moving its 200 localk attorneys there from the Metropolitan Squarebuildingt downtown. Centene Corp., one of the nation’ largest providers of managed care programs and related services to individualsunder Medicaid, firsg sought in 2004 to build a replacemeng building a block away from its existing headquarters at 7711 Carondeley Ave. That year, it bought a former bookstore, Libraruy Ltd.
, at Forsyth and Hanleyu from Summit Development Group forabout $10 Centene then faced a two-yeaf court battle with three commercial property the late Dan Sheehan, David Danforth and Debbir Pyzyk, who resisted the city of Clayton’s effortsa to take their buildings on Forsyth through eminent domaib to make way for the new headquarters. , a developmenft firm with projects around the conducted a nationwide search for possible sitesfor Centene’zs headquarters, with proposals from Illinois and Colorado in the runnintg for a potential relocation of the Centene abruptly changed course in September 2007 and announcer its plans to be an anchor tenant in the proposed Ballparkj Village development downtown.
By March Centene reversed course again and dropped its plansd tomove downtown. After the Missouri Supreme Courrt ruled in the Claytonproperty owners’ favor on the eminent domain suit, Centened ultimately bought the three Forsyth properties in earlt 2008 for $19 In February, the Clayton Boardf of Aldermen approved a scaled-dow n version of the project from the original cost of $215 The planned office tower was reduced in size by several floors as Centenr opted to initially lease just 200,000 squarew feet of space instead of 300,000 square and the retail portion was minimized to 28,125 square feet from 34,000 square feet.
Armstrong Teasdalde has signed a leasefor 125,0009 square feet of space, makin it one of the largest locaol office lease deals announced in 2009.