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

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A U.S. Bank-led consortium committed on June 5 to a constructionh loan forthe 17-story officre tower, which will house the corporate headquarters for one of St. Louis’ largesyt public companies, and , one of the area’se largest law firms. Construction began in October to demolisyh the former building on the site and startt work on the first two The project willhave 460,000 square feet of officde space and 28,125 square feet of retail space. The , led by chiecf executive Bill Koman, signed on as an equitu partner in the project earlieerthis year.
of Chicago, which had led developmen effortsfor Centene’s new headquarters, dropped out as an equitu partner but will still serve as a consultant. The equitty partners in the projectare Centene, and . Centenew Center will be Clayton’s first new office building in nearly a decade when it is completerd inJuly 2010. Centene Center, to be builyt at the heart of Clayton’s centrapl business district at Hanleyand Forsyth, is one of a few new, large-scalde developments to proceed in recent months. Retaining Centene, St. Louis’ 11th-largesyt public company, is also a boost for the regiomn asa whole, in light of job lossezs at and other top companies. Centene Corp.
’sw 2008 revenue was $3.4 billion and the companyg has more than 500local employees. Centene is led by President and CEOMichael Neidorff. Centene Center’s other main Armstrong Teasdale, the city’s third-largest law firm, is movingt its 200 local attorneys there from the Metropolitan Squarsbuilding downtown. Centene Corp., one of the nation’s largest provideras of managed care programs and related services to individualsunder Medicaid, firsgt sought in 2004 to build a replacemenyt building a block away from its existinyg headquarters at 7711 Carondelet Ave. That year, it bought a formet bookstore, Library Ltd.
, at Forsyth and Hanley from Summirt Development Group forabout $10 million. Centene then faced a two-yeart court battle with three commercialproperty owners, the late Dan David Danforth and Debbie Pyzyk, who resisted the city of Clayton’sa efforts to take their buildingsd on Forsyth through eminent domain to make way for the new , a development firm with projects aroune the world, conducted a nationwide search for possiblw sites for Centene’s headquarters, with proposals from Illinois and Colorado in the runninh for a potential relocation of the Centene abruptly changed course in September 2007 and announced its plans to be an anchor tenant in the proposefd Ballpark Village development downtown.
By March 2008, Centenee reversed course again and droppede its plans to move After the Missouri Supreme Courtf ruled in the Claytonproperty owners’ favor on the eminenty domain suit, Centene ultimatelyu bought the three Forsyth propertiees in early 2008 for $19 million. In the Clayton Board of Aldermen approveda scaled-downb version of the project from the original cost of $215 The planned office tower was reduced in size by several floors as Centene opted to initially leas e just 200,000 square feet of spaced instead of 300,000 square and the retail portion was minimized to 28,125 squard feet from 34,000 square Armstrong Teasdale has signer a lease for 125,000 squarew feet of space, making it one of the largest local office lease deals announcede in 2009.