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 house the corporate headquarters for Centene, one of St. Louis’ largest publid companies, and , one of the area’s larges law firms. Construction began in Octobeer to demolish the former building on the site and startr work on the first two The project willhave 460,000 square feet of officre space and 28,125 square feet of retail space. The , led by chiefc executive Bill Koman, signed on as an equityh partner in the project earlierthis year.
of which had led development effortsfor Centene’s new dropped out as an equity partnert but will still serve as a consultant. The equity partners in the projectrare Centene, and . Centene Center will be Clayton’s first new office building in nearly a decad e when it is completed inJuly 2010. Centene Center, to be built at the heart of Clayton’sw central business district at Hanleuand Forsyth, is one of a few new, large-scale developmentds to proceed in recent months. Retaining Centene, St. Louis’ 11th-largest public company, is also a boos t for the region asa whole, in light of job lossee at and other top companies. Centene Corp.’s 2008 revenus was $3.
4 billion and the company has more than 500locaol employees. Centene is led by President and CEOMichaeol Neidorff. Centene Center’s other main tenant, Armstronhg Teasdale, the city’s third-largest law firm, is moving its 200 local attorneys therre from the Metropolitan Square building Centene Corp., one of the nation’s largestg providers of managed care programs and relatex services to individuals under Medicaid, firsgt sought in 2004 to build a replacemeny building a block away from its existing headquarters at 7711 Carondele t Ave. That year, it bought a former bookstore, Libraryy Ltd.
, at Forsyth and Hanley from Summirt Development Group forabout $10 Centene then faced a two-year court battl with three commercial property the late Dan Sheehan, David Danforth and Debbie Pyzyk, who resisted the city of Clayton’s efforts to take theird buildings on Forsyth through eminent domain to make way for the new , a development firm with projects around the conducted a nationwide search for possible sites for Centene’s with proposals from Illinois and Colorado in the running for a potential relocation of the company. Centene abruptly changed course in September 2007 and announced its plands to be an anchor tenant in the proposef Ballpark Villagedevelopment downtown.
By March 2008, Centene reversed course again and dropped its plans to move After the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in the Claytonpropertt owners’ favor on the eminent domain Centene ultimately bought the three Forsyth propertiesw in early 2008 for $19 In February, the Clayton Boarde of Aldermen approved a scaled-down versionj of the project from the original cost of $215 million. The plannex office tower was reduced in size by severa floors as Centene opted to initially leaswejust 200,000 square feet of spac instead of 300,000 squarre feet, and the retail portion was minimizec to 28,125 square feet from 34,000 square Armstrong Teasdale has signed a lease for 125,009 square feet of space, makinyg it one of the larges t local office lease deals announced in 2009.