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

add
A U.S. Bank-led consortium committedf on June 5 to a construction loan forthe 17-storty office tower, which will house the corporatew headquarters for Centene, one of St. Louis’ largest publi c companies, and , one of the area’s largest law Construction began in October to demolishh the former building on the site and start work on the first two The project willhave 460,000 squarw feet of office spacs and 28,125 square feet of retail space.
The , led by chief executivd Bill Koman, signed on as an equityg partner in the project earlier this of Chicago, which had led development effortas for Centene’s new headquarters, droppedc out as an equitt partner but will still serve as a consultant. The equity partners in the projecare Centene, and . Centene Center will be Clayton’s firstg new office building in nearly a decadr when it is completed inJuly 2010. Centene Center, to be buil t at the heart of Clayton’s centra business district at Hanleyand Forsyth, is one of a few new, large-scald developments to proceed in recent months. Retainingb Centene, St.
Louis’ 11th-largest public company, is also a boost for the regiob asa whole, in lighty of job losses at and othere top companies. Centene Corp.’s 2008 revenues was $3.4 billion and the company has more than 500locall employees. Centene is led by President and CEO Michael Centene Center’s other main tenant, Armstrong the city’s third-largest law firm, is moving its 200 localo attorneys there from the Metropolitan Square building Centene Corp.
, one of the nation’d largest providers of managed care programs and related serviced to individuals under Medicaid, first sought in 2004 to builf a replacement building a block away from its existinv headquarters at 7711 Carondelet Ave. That year, it boughy a former bookstore, Library at Forsyth and Hanley from Summit Development Group forabout $10 million. Centener then faced a two-year court battle with threr commercialproperty owners, the late Dan David Danforth and Debbie Pyzyk, who resistee the city of Clayton’s efforts to take theirr buildings on Forsyth through eminent domain to make way for the new , a development firm with projects aroundx the world, conducted a nationwide search for possibler sites for Centene’s headquarters, with proposals from Illinoixs and Colorado in the running for a potentiao relocation of the company.
Centene abruptlyu changed course in September 2007 and announcee its plans to be an anchort tenant in the proposed Ballpark Village development ByMarch 2008, Centene reversed coursd again and dropped its plans to move downtown. After the Missourii Supreme Court ruled in the Claytonproperty owners’ favor on the eminent domain suit, Centene ultimatelg bought the three Forsyth propertied in early 2008 for $19 million.
In the Clayton Board of Aldermen approveda scaled-downm version of the project from the original cost of $215 The planned office tower was reduced in size by severa l floors as Centene opted to initially lease just 200,000 squaree feet of space instead of 300,00p square feet, and the retaill portion was minimized to 28,12 5 square feet from 34,000 square Armstrong Teasdale has signed a lease for 125,0000 square feet of space, making it one of the largestr local office lease deals announced in 2009.