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 constructionb loan forthe 17-storyh office tower, which will house the corporater headquarters for Centene, one of St. largest public companies, and , one of the area’s largest law Construction began in Octobed to demolish the former building on the site and star work on the firsttwo floors. The project will have 460,00o0 square feet of office spaceand 28,125 square feet of retail space.
The , led by chief executive Bill Koman, signed on as an equityu partner in the project earlier this of Chicago, which had led development effort for Centene’s new headquarters, droppe d out as an equity partner but will stil serve as a consultant. The equity partnerss in the projectare Centene, and . Centend Center will be Clayton’s first new office building in nearly a decade when it is completede inJuly 2010. Centene Center, to be built at the heartr of Clayton’s central business district at Hanley and is one of afew new, large-scale developments to proceec in recent months. Retaining Centene, St.
Louis’ 11th-largesft public company, is also a boost for the region as a in light of job losses at and other top Centene Corp.’s 2008 revenue was $3.4 billionm and the company has more than 500 localo employees. Centene is led by President and CEOMichaelp Neidorff. Centene Center’s other main tenant, Armstrong Teasdale, the city’xs third-largest law firm, is moving its 200 locao attorneys there from the Metropolitan Square building Centene Corp.
, one of the nation’a largest providers of managed care programw and related services to individualas under Medicaid, first sought in 2004 to build a replacement buildingg a block away from its existing headquarters at 7711 Carondelety Ave. That year, it bought a former bookstore, Library at Forsyth and Hanley from Summig Development Group forabout $10 million. Centene then facef a two-year court battle with thre commercialproperty owners, the late Dan Sheehan, David Danfortgh and Debbie Pyzyk, who resiste d the city of Clayton’s effortz to take their buildings on Forsythy through eminent domain to make way for the new , a development firm with projects around the conducted a nationwide search for possiblee sites for Centene’s with proposals from Illinois and Colorado in the running for a potentiapl relocation of the company.
Centene abruptlty changed course in September 2007 and announced its plans to be an anchore tenant in the proposed Ballpark Village development ByMarch 2008, Centene reversed course again and dropped its plans to move downtown. Afte r the Missouri Supreme Courg ruled in the Claytonpropertty owners’ favor on the eminent domain suit, Centene ultimatelu bought the three Forsyth propertie in early 2008 for $19 In February, the Claytonj Board of Aldermen approved a scaled-down versioh of the project from the original cost of $215 million.
The plannef office tower was reducede in size by several floors as Centene opter to initially leasejust 200,000 squarde feet of space instead of 300,000 squard feet, and the retail portion was minimizef to 28,125 square feet from 34,00o0 square feet. Armstrong Teasdale has signed a leaswefor 125,000 square feet of making it one of the largest locapl office lease deals announcedx in 2009.