ST. LOUIS  • Nestlé Purina PetCare is breaking ground this month on a $15 million, four-story building at its headquarters, the first new facility on its downtown campus in nearly a quarter-century.

"The new building reflects our growing PetCare business and will serve as a learning and training center for Purina associates," Pat McGinnis, Nestlé Purina's president and CEO, said in a statement.

The L-shaped, 56,000-square-foot building — scheduled for completion by the end of 2011 — will be built on what is now a grassy, vacant plot east of the company's 15-story headquarters tower.

The addition will provide Nestlé Purina needed elbow room. The company currently leases space from nearby St. Raymond's Maronite Cathedral for large corporate meetings.

The new building will house additional conference room and office space and an 82-seat auditorium, said spokesman Keith Schopp. Covered walkways will link the new building to several adjoining Nestlé Purina buildings.

Besides the auditorium for meeting and training, the building will house some of Nestlé Purina's research and development, or what it calls "innovation" departments, that now are based elsewhere on the campus.

Alderman Phyllis Young, whose ward includes Nestlé Purina's property, said the company's expansion is important to the city.

"They're a very important part of our (city), and it's nice that this international firm sees that St. Louis is an important part of their business plan for the future," Young said. She added that Nestlé Purina did not seek incentives from the city to help fund the development.

The addition is the first new building on Nestlé Purina's campus since 1986, when the "C" office building was completed. Checkerboard Square, the 15-story tower adorned with the company's more than century-old checkerboard logo, was built in 1969.

The company's 55-acre campus houses 17 buildings totaling 1.3 million square feet. There are also three man-made ponds at the center of the property, which includes two fenced dog runs for employees' pets and a day-care center.

Located on Chouteau Avenue, between Seventh and 14th streets, the downtown St. Louis campus has 2,000 employees and is the headquarters for Nestlé Purina's U.S. and Latin American operations.

Swiss conglomerate Nestlé, which acquired St. Louis-based Ralston Purina Co. in 2001, is among the largest global consumer products companies, with $28.3 billion in U.S. sales in 2009. Purina accounts for a quarter of that revenue, or $7.1 billion in the U.S.

A news conference to announce the new building is set for 10:30 a.m. Friday at Nestlé Purina PetCare headquarters. McGinnis and Luis Cantarell, Nestlé's executive vice president and head of Zone Americas, which includes North America and Latin America, are slated to attend.

Few new commercial buildings have been constructed in the St. Louis area in the last year, as the recession prompted many companies to put off spending money on new facilities.

Construction employment in Missouri was down 15 percent in May 2010, the most recent data available, compared with May 2009, according to the Associated General Contractors of America. Nationwide, construction employment was down 9 percent during the same period.

Len Toenjes, president of the Associated General Contractors of St. Louis, said construction of new commercial buildings locally is starting to slowly pick back up.

"It has not been a fast-paced rebound," he said. "It's been a cautious, dip-your-toe-in-the-water type pace."

Toenjes said Nestlé Purina's investment in its downtown campus is welcome news to those who feared the company might pull up stakes in St. Louis after the 2001 Ralston Purina acquisition.

"Folks were cautious about which way Nestlé was going to go, and it's nice to see them move forward with reinvestment here," he said.

Landco Construction Co., a St. Louis-based firm, is the general contractor on the building. Gray Design Group, Weston and E.I.D. are teaming on the architecture and interior design.

The new office building at its St. Louis headquarters is the second major capital improvement project Purina is building in the region recently.

Crews will complete construction in mid-August on the $10 million Purina Event Center in Gray Summit, 40 miles southwest of St. Louis off Interstate 44. That 84,000-square-foot center features a 45,000-square-foot exhibition hall for dog shows and agility training on the company's 337-acre Purina Farms property, which also includes a visitors center.