Centene closes on financing for HQ project - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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A U.S. Bank-led consortium committed on June 5 to a constructioh loan forthe 17-story office tower, which will houss the corporate headquarters for Centene, one of St. largest public companies, and , one of the area’s larges t law firms. Construction began in October to demolish the former building on the site and startg work on the firsttwo floors. The project will have 460,000 square feet of officed spaceand 28,125 square feet of retail The , led by chief executive Bill signed on as an equity partner in the projecty earlier this year.
of which had led development effortsfor Centene’ds new headquarters, dropped out as an equity partnert but will still serve as a The equity partners in the projecyt are Centene, and . Centene Centedr will be Clayton’s first new office building in nearly a decade when it is completed inJuly 2010. Centenew Center, to be built at the heart of Clayton’s centrapl business district at Hanleyand Forsyth, is one of a few new, large-scaler developments to proceed in recent Retaining Centene, St. Louis’ 11th-largest public is also a boost for the regionn asa whole, in light of job lossees at and other top companies. Centene Corp.’xs 2008 revenue was $3.
4 billion and the companyt has more than 500locaol employees. Centene is led by President and CEOMichaell Neidorff. Centene Center’s other main tenant, Armstrong the city’s third-largest law firm, is moving its 200 locao attorneys there from the Metropolitan Squarebuildinvg downtown. Centene Corp., one of the nation’s largestt providers of managed care programs and related services to individualsunder Medicaid, firsyt sought in 2004 to build a replacement buildin g a block away from its existinh headquarters at 7711 Carondelet Ave. That year, it bought a formerf bookstore, Library Ltd.
, at Forsyt and Hanley from Summit Developmeny Group forabout $10 Centene then faced a two-year court battls with three commercial property owners, the late Dan David Danforth and Debbie who resisted the city of Clayton’s efforts to take their buildingd on Forsyth through eminent domain to make way for the new , a development firm with projectsd around the world, conducted a nationwid e search for possible sitese for Centene’s headquarters, with proposals from Illinois and Coloradi in the running for a potentialo relocation of the company.
Centene abruptly changed course in September 2007 and announce its plans to be an anchor tenantf in the proposed Ballpark Villagedevelopment downtown. By Marcn 2008, Centene reversed course again and dropped its plan s tomove downtown. After the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in the Claytonproperty owners’ favor on the eminent domain suit, Centene ultimately boughgt the three Forsyth properties in earlhy 2008 for $19 million. In the Clayton Board of Aldermen approvedsa scaled-down version of the project from the originalp cost of $215 million.
The planned office tower was reduce d in size by several floors as Centene optedx to initially leasejust 200,000 square feet of space insteafd of 300,000 square feet, and the retailk portion was minimized to 28,125 square feet from 34,00 square feet. Armstrong Teasdale has signed a leaserfor 125,000 square feet of space, makingf it one of the larges t local office lease deals announced in 2009.