Myself and others have suggested some of the vast empty blocks of the Gateway Mall be sold for development. A new Centene Tower downtown with a retail base could be a great boost for both the city and the company. If that does work, there are a number of areas downtown such as surface parking lots where a new buiding could be constructed. They would take over the vacant office building at Olive & 20th.

And finally, the state needs to abandon the old 22nd interchange and make that land avaiable for development. With the existing lowered grade it would be much easier to construct new buildings with underground parking in this area. Centene needs to relocate from Clayton to downtown St. Louis.

I agree with Steve, downtown would a great location. I think they should take over Union Station. They can easily add one or two towers, have ready made retail (which seems like their biggest hang up), hotel, add underground parking, extend clark street, easy access from a rebuilt I-64 and rebuild the Metro station a block over to boot!!

Tim Eagan, of Kadean Construction in Fenton, sent me this comment, with permission to post it here. His suggestion is a site in Washington, Mo.:

Anyhow, I just wanted to write in and say how great of a site Washington, MO would be for Centene. We have the infrastructure, housing stock, educated workforce, great schools, and many other assets a company such as Centene would be looking for. Highway 100 is under construction right now and being expanded to four lanes all the way out to Interstate 44. Washington also recently upgraded their airport to receive regional status. While we can’t land a 747 there, many smaller passenger jets can land there. Not only that, but land is plentiful and comparatively cheap compared to Clayton. Our land value per square foot is easily 1/3-1/4 of what Centene would pay in Clayton and local officials would do anything to land those types of jobs in our community.

Available office space

The old Sherwood Medical building had been for sale by AG Edwards for YEARS. It would be a great starting point for Centenne (that is if AG Edwards keeps it for the transition to Wackovia).

Additional land

There’s a large parking lot across Olive AND others that wrap around the Sherwood building. The there are the low rise buildings (some in use, others not utilized) that could be acquired more than likely without the need of eminent domain OR blighting for the right price.

Ingress / Egress

This is comparable to the access to I-170 and the Forest Park Expressway. Outbound access to both can be reached via Pine St plus Olive, Market St and Washington provide access east toward downtown and west toward midtown. Inbound via the I-64 / Jefferson interchange (east bound), 20st @ I-64 westbound and of course… that location is three blocks from Metrolink (the Union Station stop). The I-64 construction would be about done around the same time the additional office space was completed (if they needed the additional space. I’ll just bet a helicopter pad could be incorporated onto the top of one of the buildings for that quick escape (just like August A. Bush III did from the world headquarters and flew the I-64 route over my house every day!).

Living space

With the current trends of loft living in the downtown area, a wealth of space is available for those that want to be withing walking distance from work. There’s the Roberts Mayfair and other hotels within either walking distance OR a taxi cab ride for the visiting staff.

Other Pluses

Union Station
Hotels
Restaurants
Movie Theatres
Police Headquarters
No longer near the St. Louis County Justice Center
Both Sports Stadiums

It’s really important to keep the existing 600 jobs in the region AND capture the additional 900 positions they are expecting over the next several years. Why not give St. Louis City a bump with another major corporation?