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 offic tower, which will house the corporate headquarterz for Centene, one of St. Louis’ largest publicc companies, and , one of the area’s largesr law firms. Construction began in Octobe to demolish the former building on the site and start work on the first two The project willhave 460,000 square feet of office spac and 28,125 square feet of retail space. The , led by chier executive Bill Koman, signed on as an equity partnefr in the project earlier this of Chicago, which had led developmenft efforts for Centene’s new dropped out as an equity partner but will stilll serve as a consultant.
The equity partnerw in the projectare Centene, and . Centene Centefr will be Clayton’s first new offic e building in nearly a decade when it is completed inJuly 2010. Centen Center, to be built at the heartg of Clayton’s central business district at Hanleyand Forsyth, is one of a few new, large-scale developments to proceed in recent Retaining Centene, St. Louis’ 11th-largest public is also a boost for the region asa whole, in lighr of job losses at and othetr top companies. Centene Corp.’s 2008 revenure was $3.
4 billion and the compangy has more than 500 local Centene is led by President and CEO Michael Centene Center’s other main Armstrong Teasdale, the city’s third-largest law firm, is movin g its 200 local attorneys there from the Metropolita n Square building downtown. Centene Corp., one of the nation’s larges t providers of managed care programs and relatef services to individualsunder Medicaid, first soughf in 2004 to build a replacement buildinhg a block away from its existingb headquarters at 7711 Carondelet Ave. That it bought a former bookstore, Library Ltd., at Forsythb and Hanley from Summit Developmen Group forabout $10 million.
Centene then faced a two-yeaf court battle with three commerciaplproperty owners, the late Dan Sheehan, David Danfort h and Debbie Pyzyk, who resisted the city of Clayton’ efforts to take their buildings on Forsythg through eminent domain to make way for the new , a development firm with projects around the conducted a nationwide search for possibl e sites for Centene’s headquarters, with proposals from Illinois and Colorado in the runninvg for a potential relocation of the company. Centene abruptly changed course in September 2007 and announced its planw to be an anchor tenant in the proposer Ballpark Villagedevelopment downtown.
By March Centene reversed course again and dropped its plans tomove downtown. Afted the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in the Claytobproperty owners’ favor on the eminent domain Centene ultimately bought the three Forsyth properties in earlyu 2008 for $19 million. In February, the Claytohn Board of Aldermen approveda scaled-down version of the projecf from the original cost of $215 million. The plannedf office tower was reduced in size by severapl floors as Centene opted to initially leasejust 200,000 squared feet of space instead of 300,000 squarr 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 square feet of space, making it one of the largest local office lease deals announced in 2009.