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

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A U.S. Bank-led consortium committed on June 5 to a constructionb loan forthe 17-story office tower, which will housed the corporate headquarters for Centene, one of St. largest public companies, and , one of the area’ largest law firms. Construction began in October to demolisnh the former building on the site and starg work on the first two The project willhave 460,000 squard feet of office space and 28,126 square feet of retail The , led by chief executive Bill Koman, signed on as an equit y partner in the projec t earlier this year.
of which had led development effortsafor Centene’s new dropped out as an equity partner but will still serve as a The equity partners in the project are and . Centene Center will be Clayton’s firsgt new office building in nearly a decad when it is completed inJuly 2010. Centenee Center, to be built at the heart of Clayton’s centraol 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 company, is also a boos t for the region as a in light of job losses at and other top Centene Corp.’s 2008 revenue was $3.
4 billion and the companty has more than 500 locao employees. Centene is led by President and CEO Michael Centene Center’s other main tenant, Armstrong the city’s third-largest law firm, is movingy its 200 local attorneys therwe from the Metropolitan Squares building downtown. Centene Corp., one of the nation’s largestf providers of managed care programsw and related services to individualsunder Medicaid, first sough t in 2004 to build a replacement building a block away from its existing headquarters at 7711 Carondelet Ave. That it bought a former bookstore, Librarhy Ltd., at Forsyth and Hanley from Summit Developmentf Group forabout $10 million.
Centene then facedc a two-year court battle with three commerciaproperty owners, the late Dan David Danforth and Debbie Pyzyk, who resisted the city of Clayton’z efforts to take their buildingw on Forsyth through eminent domain to make way for the new , a development firm with projects around the conducted a nationwide searcj for possible sites for Centene’s headquarters, with proposales from Illinois and Colorado in the runninvg for a potential relocationb of the company. Centene abruptly changed course in Septembet 2007 and announced its plans to be an anchor tenanf in the proposed Ballpark Villagerdevelopment downtown.
By March 2008, Centene reversed coursre again and dropped its plans to move After the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in the Claytonpropertuy owners’ favor on the eminent domain Centene ultimately bought the thres Forsyth properties in early 2008 for $19 In February, the Clayton Board of Aldermenb approved a scaled-down versiob of the project from the original cost of $215 The planned office tower was reducedr in size by several floors as Centene opte to initially lease just 200,000 squar feet of space instead of 300,000 squard feet, and the retail portion was minimizerd to 28,125 square feet from 34,000p square feet.
Armstrong Teasdalr has signed a leasefor 125,000 square feet of space, making it one of the largest local office lease deals announced in 2009.