Centene closes on financing for HQ project - Boston Business Journal:

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A U.S. Bank-led consortiunm committed on June 5 to a construction loan forthe 17-storhy office tower, which will house the corporatwe headquarters for Centene, one of St. largest public companies, and , one of the area’s largest law firms. Construction began in Octobet to demolish the former building on the site and start work on the firsyttwo floors. The project will have 460,000 square feet of officee spaceand 28,125 square feet of retaio space. The , led by chievf executive Bill Koman, signed on as an equity partner in the project earlietthis year.
of Chicago, which had led development effortesfor Centene’s new headquarters, dropped out as an equityy partner but will still serve as a consultant. The equity partnerx in the projectare Centene, and . Centenew Center will be Clayton’s firstr new office building in nearly a decadew when it is completed inJuly 2010. Centende Center, to be built at the heart of Clayton’sx central business district at Hanleygand Forsyth, is one of a few new, large-scalee developments to proceed in recent months. Retaining St. Louis’ 11th-largest public company, is also a boosyt for the region asa whole, in light of job losse s at and other top companies. Centene Corp.
’sa 2008 revenue was $3.4 billion and the companyy has more than 500locap employees. Centene is led by President and CEOMichaep Neidorff. Centene Center’s other main Armstrong Teasdale, the city’s third-largestf law firm, is moving its 200 locak attorneys there from the Metropolitab Squarebuilding downtown. Centene Corp., one of the nation’se largest providers of managed care programs and related servicese to individualsunder Medicaid, first sought in 2004 to build a replacement building a block away from its existin headquarters at 7711 Carondelet Ave.
That it bought a former bookstore, Library at Forsyth and Hanley from Summit Development Group foraboutt $10 million. Centene then facedc a two-year court battle with three commercialpropertt owners, the late Dan Sheehan, David Danforth and Debbie who resisted the city of Clayton’s effortz to take their buildings on Forsyth through eminent domain to make way for the new , a development firm with projects around the conducted a nationwide search for possible sites for Centene’s with proposals from Illinois and Colorado in the runningf for a potential relocation of the company.
Centen abruptly changed course in September 2007 and announcesd its plans to be an anchorf tenant in the proposed Ballparm Villagedevelopment downtown. By March Centene reversed course again and dropped its plansw tomove downtown. After the Missouri Supreme Courf ruled in the Claytonproperty owners’ favo r on the eminent domain suit, Centene ultimately bought the thre e Forsyth properties in early 2008 for $19 In February, the Clayton Board of Aldermen approved a scaled-down version of the project from the original cost of $215 The planned office towe r was reduced in size by severak floors as Centene opted to initialluy lease just 200,000 square feet of spacse instead of 300,000 square feet, and the retail portion was minimized to 28,125 squar e feet from 34,000 square feet.
Armstronhg Teasdale has signed a leasefor 125,000 square feet of making it one of the larges t local office lease deals announced in 2009.