Centene Corp. isn't coming to Ballpark Village after all.

The Clayton-based company released a statement this morning stating, "Ballpark Village was unable to accommodate Centene's plans for our world headquarters, which we deeply regret and are disappointed to announce."

Centene was to add an office tower component to the mixed-use development that is supposed to be built across from Busch Stadium, the home of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The deal to incorporate Centene into Ballpark Village fell through, said Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, in large part because of, “how complicated it got.”

There were too many uncertainties on how the two projects — the proposed $387-million phase one and Centene’s portion — would be integrated.

“We were reasonably close to an agreement with Centene but we never got to the finish line,” DeWitt said.

The Cardinals are part of the team that is developing the site.

A major hurdle was that Centene wasn’t going to be just another tenant, but rather was planning to buy two of the seven blocks and develop their own project. “Because of that and in order to accommodate that, we had to change our whole plan,” DeWitt said.

He expressed confidence that the overall project would not be affected because of the deal with Centene falling through.

“Any time you hope to get a big deal done and it’s been announced and it falls through, it’s not a good piece of news,” DeWitt said. “But I remain very optimistic about Ballpark Village and the original vision we laid out.”

Baltimore-based Cordish Co., which is the co-developer of Ballpark Village, issued a statement saying it was disappointed that the parties could not come to an agreement.

Echoing DeWitt, Cordish said, "Ultimately, the many complexities of Centene’s proposed project in Ballpark Village proved insurmountable."

"We will now work immediately with the city and state to finalize all public approvals and commence construction of Ballpark Village," the firm said.

DeWitt wasn't able to say when construction will begin on the project, which in addition to the Centene portion of the project, is supposed to have 324,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space; 100,000 square feet of office space; and 1,200 parking spaces.

The separate Centene project was supposed to include two buildings — including a 27-story skyscraper — with up to 1.2 million square feet of office space. It is supposed to bring 1,200 jobs.

Centene did not say what the new location of its headquarters would be but left open the possibility that it may be outside the St. Louis region.

"We are currently resuming the evaluation of other potential options for the location of our corporate headquarters, both in and out of the region," the statement said.

In a statement posted to STLtoday's Talk of the Day blog, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said, "I am very disappointed that Centene and the Ballpark Village Partners could not come to an agreement. Meeting the needs, obligations, legal requirements, and goals of both parties was extremely difficult, complicated, and frustrating. ... I still support Ballpark Village. Because of changes in the composition of Ballpark Village proposed by the developer, a new redevelopment agreement will have to be negotiated. The project will only move forward on terms that are fair to the taxpayers."

City leaders and company officials announced in September that the company would relocate its headquarters to the proposed retailing and entertainment district near Busch Stadium. Few details have been forthcoming about Centene's $250 million proposal or the Ballpark Village development since then and speculation has been growing that Centene would pull out.

Rumors of problems developing in the contract negotiations came to a head two weeks ago. City officials then said a decision would be made in a "couple of weeks." However, without any definitive confirmation that a deal would be done, the speculation over the deal became even stronger.

On Monday, parties involved in the negotiations denied a report by KTVI (Channel 2) that Centene had pulled out of Ballpark Village development.

Ken Fields, spokesman for Centene, on Monday said negotiations are ongoing.

"Centene has been working closely with representatives of Ballpark Village to finalize details for a new corporate headquarters. At this point, there's nothing new to report," Fields said.

Jeff Rainford, Mayor Slay's chief of staff, on Monday said there is "nothing new to report" on talks with Centene.

"We are still working on it," Rainford said.

Rainford declined to say what the obstacles are, but suggested they were between the Ballpark Village partners and Centene — not the mayor's office.

"We are acting, in essence, as mediator," Rainford said.