Centene will move its HQ to Ballpark Village
By Riddhi Trivedi St. Clair
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/23/2007
Centene's headquarters in Clayton in April; the company originally proposed an office complex on the block.
(Karen Stockman/P-D)
Clayton's loss is downtown St. Louis' gain. Centene Corp., said today it is moving its headquarters from Clayton to Ballpark Village.
In return for the promise of 1,200 new jobs to downtown within the next five years, Centene will receive $78 million in tax incentives from the city for the approximately $250 million development with more to come from state and federal programs.
Construction is scheduled to begin on the Centene Centre complex in summer of 2008.
The complex will be built in two phases and include office, retail and parking on two blocks at the corner of Broadway and Walnut Street.
Both blocks will see some development as part of phase one. The first block will have 700,000 square feet of office space. There will also be two floors of retail but no square footage was given.
The health care services company will occupy 400,000 square feet and lease out the remaining 300,000 square feet until it needs the space.
The second block will have 1,750 parking spaces and two more floors of retail. The square footage of retail on the second block, or the total number of stories in each buildings was also not released. The rest of the second block will be built in phase two and include up to 550,000 square feet of office space on an as-needed basis.
The retail will be sold back to Cordish at cost and count toward the company's commitment to 360,000 square feet of retail in the first phase of Ballpark Village.
Cordish will also build a 180-room hotel in the first phase of Ballpark Village. The hotel will accommodate Centene employees, clients and other guests. The location of the hotel was not immediately clear.
"Centene will be the largest employer to move its corporate headquarters into the city in decades – maybe as long as 50 years," said Mayor Francis Slay in a statement.
The move will help keep a major corporate headquarters within the metro area, bring jobs into the city and increase the momentum of downtown revitalization, Slay said.
To encourage Centene to make the move, the city will give the company $48 million in city tax abatement in addition to other incentives for a total of $78 million in incentives.
Centene will also receive $24 million through a federal incentive program for underdeveloped business districts. The company will receive $1.9 million as a portion of the sales tax collected from the hotel through the formation of a special tax district.
The city also plans to request more funds from the state's downtown economic program.
These tax breaks will be in addition to the approximately $116 million in incentives already allocated to Baltimore-based Cordish Co., the developers of Ballpark Village.
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Centene will be building 700,000 square feet of office space in Phase 1.
Here is what 700,000 square feet of office space looks like in tower form:
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In addition to this, up to another 550,000 square feet of office space will be built in Phase 2. Great news!
Here is what 700,000 square feet of office space looks like in tower form:
In addition to this, up to another 550,000 square feet of office space will be built in Phase 2. Great news!
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WooHoO! This is pretty exciting...a huge deal for balancing the region.
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Big Props to the City for capitalizing of the opportunity. Hopefully we can snatch more Corp HQ's!!!!!
after a major, major bummer on my part because of the Rams game...I needed this! 
This a GREAT News for Downtown and BallPark Village!
The tower plans should be wonderful with this announcement and bringing all of these jobs to downtown is great. Great location for them right on Metro - BallPark Village and the entire new downtown landscape. Not only that, the residential neighborhoods of downtown is probably loving this too.
The aryicle also says:
Another hotel!
Damn. Downtown has a lot of hotels... but they all do fairly well. The new Four Season's is a really wonderful addition for downtown. In addition, Centene can enjoy the Downtown Westin, Millineum, and Hilton Ballpark at their doorstep.
The tower plans should be wonderful with this announcement and bringing all of these jobs to downtown is great. Great location for them right on Metro - BallPark Village and the entire new downtown landscape. Not only that, the residential neighborhoods of downtown is probably loving this too.
The aryicle also says:
Cordish will also build a 180-room hotel in the first phase of Ballpark Village. The hotel will accommodate Centene employees, clients and other guests. The location of the hotel was not immediately clear.
Another hotel!
Damn. Downtown has a lot of hotels... but they all do fairly well. The new Four Season's is a really wonderful addition for downtown. In addition, Centene can enjoy the Downtown Westin, Millineum, and Hilton Ballpark at their doorstep.
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This is great. I understand that some will not approve of all the tax incentives that made this move happen, but that's the way things seem to be done. The city will be better off with this move. I think the employees will find being a part of BPV to be great. Of course those who aren't big baseball fans may be annoyed with the extra traffic. Maybe they'll find that if they live in downtown west or the OPO district the commute won't be too bad!!!
courtland wrote:after a major, major bummer on my part because of the Rams game...I needed this!
This is so funny - I feel the exact same way on both fronts!
(and Linehan needs to go).
What does 700,000 Sq. Ft. Equate to in height? 30-35 stories? How about the height of a parking garage that holds 1750 cars and two floors of retail. Sounds like when done we could have at least 5 new towers in that space.
Great news indeed.
Finally. Downtown will finally get that large amount of new Class A office space its been needing - with a large tenant to boot.
Also, these types of tax incentives are nothing. They are about in line with incentives offered by other municipalities and states to lure (or keep) that many jobs. I am glad that city officials were aggressive.
Depending on the footprint, I think the new tower should reach 25-stories or greater. I hope to get at least a 35-story out of the deal.
Finally. Downtown will finally get that large amount of new Class A office space its been needing - with a large tenant to boot.
Also, these types of tax incentives are nothing. They are about in line with incentives offered by other municipalities and states to lure (or keep) that many jobs. I am glad that city officials were aggressive.
Depending on the footprint, I think the new tower should reach 25-stories or greater. I hope to get at least a 35-story out of the deal.
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datawhse wrote:What does 700,000 Sq. Ft. Equate to in height? 30-35 stories? How about the height of a parking garage that holds 1750 cars and two floors of retail. Sounds like when done we could have at least 5 new towers in that space.
700,000 Sq. Foot usually equals 40 stories when built to typical tower specifications. However, it also depends on how the base is built. If they build a large base full of shops and restaurants, we could end up with a large rectangular building or something I expect to be more similar to this but geared more to office space rather than residential:
Recent USA Today article on use of tax incentives to lure or keep businesses
I'm glad everyone is so thrilled about $78 million in corporate welfare used to get a company to move 10 miles. I disagree, and USA Today appears to back me up, at least in part.
I'm glad everyone is so thrilled about $78 million in corporate welfare used to get a company to move 10 miles. I disagree, and USA Today appears to back me up, at least in part.
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Shimmy wrote:So construction is a year late, but this news is worth it.
I find it really interesting how this deal is structured. I know one of reasons it took so long is because city hall had to convince Cordish that is was in their best interests to sell some of their land. I wonder how this will effect the site plan (if at all) and I would can't wait to see the new renderings. props to mayor Slay for putting this all together.
What does 700,000 Sq. Ft. Equate to in height? 30-35 stories
27-28
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bonwich wrote:Recent USA Today article on use of tax incentives to lure or keep businesses
I'm glad everyone is so thrilled about $78 million in corporate welfare used to get a company to move 10 miles. I disagree, and USA Today appears to back me up, at least in part.
Well, if you have USA Today on your side, what can any of us say?
publiceye wrote:What does 700,000 Sq. Ft. Equate to in height? 30-35 stories
27-28
Perhaps you know that is how tall the building will be? Will it be 27 or 28-stories? If so, good deal.
[700,000sq ft could be a 32, 36, 40, 25 etc. story building. It depends on the footprint and design. Of course this won't be the case for the Centene project downtown, but a 700,000 building could even be a sprawling 5-story building - in the suburbs, of course.]
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Fox is reporting approx. 26 stories in height.
Also, these types of tax incentives are nothing. They are about in line with incentives offered by other municipalities and states to lure (or keep) that many jobs. I am glad that city officials were aggressive.
Actually, this is absolutely true everywhere.
On Firday, Clayton offered Centene another incredible package to remain downtown Clayton with many tax breaks and incentives (According to KMOX)... yet Centene decided to move Downtown.
What does 700,000 Sq. Ft. Equate to in height? 30-35 stories
Really anywhere from 30-50 stories (or more)- just depending on the entire layout & architectural design of the tower. The Metropolitan Square Tower in Downtown St. Louis is 42 stories tall - and approx. 933,000 sq. footage. The Met bulding is very bulky too.
It will matter if there is residential attached or other commercial space as well in the tower too. Will it be the MW Tower??? Rumored for so long and waited for so long. Rumored to be near Ballpark Village... who knows!
Although - the following towers are at about 700,000 square footage as well.
This is 650,000 Sq. Footage:
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WOW. This is the next best thing that could possibly have happened out of BPV for downtown. Talk about an absolute victory for the Slay administration. After all that's happened, he might just go down as one of the most important people involved in the revitalization of downtown. As far as the tif goes, It is absolutely necessary right now in order to keep the current momentum going in downtown right now. Cities such as New York, Chicago, and others still use huge amounts of tax incentives to keep hold of corporations, and if they believe it is necessary it is absolutely necessary for STL as well. I think these numbers are right but I believe in agreeing to move to their new tower in Lower Manhattan, Goldman Sachs was given around 2 billion in incentives. Much larger and more prosperous company, but if you compare that move in NY to this in STL, I can't help but think we are gaining a HUGE win here.
Oh, and a gaurunteed new addition to the skyline! What's not to be excited about here guys?!
Oh, and a gaurunteed new addition to the skyline! What's not to be excited about here guys?!
bonwich wrote:Recent USA Today article on use of tax incentives to lure or keep businesses
I'm glad everyone is so thrilled about $78 million in corporate welfare used to get a company to move 10 miles. I disagree, and USA Today appears to back me up, at least in part.
I am glad Centene is taking the risk where other corps wouldn't/haven't.
I think it is better to offer incentives to move ten miles than to move out of the state altogether. Let's face it, a corporation this large moving INTO the city and not out of the city is unprecedented. It is risk for them - even with the incentives, but the city needed to nab this HQ. There's a residual effect.
BTW, Detroit is having corps moving back to the city regularly.
newstl2020 wrote: I think these numbers are right but I believe in agreeing to move to their new tower in Lower Manhattan, Goldman Sachs was given around 2 billion in incentives. Much larger and more prosperous company, but if you compare that move in NY to this in STL, I can't help but think we are gaining a HUGE win here.
Believe what you'd like, but the total projectprice for the Goldman Sachs building is $2 billion, with $115 million in incentives. Is the $78 million in welfare being given to Centene in addition to the approximately $100 million (or roughly 25 percent of project value) in incentives already provided to BPV, or are we now talking about a roughly 50 percent public subsidy in comparison to the 5 or 6 percent that Goldman Sachs got?
Geez, don't you hate it when data shows up?