urbanSTL

Doesn't AT&T still have the building in the 2600 block of Olive?

^yes, but it's more of a central office location. I think there are about 100 people designated as working there.

Now building to close “no later than the end of August”

Biz Journal article on delay in closing.  Half full, half empty.  I think everyone like to see the sale closed on at end of July but a delay is better than no sale and going back to status quo of very big empty tower.

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... s_headline

Seems interesting.

Kind of random they would be moving into the 19th floor unless someone else is moving into floors above or below that. 

^ A scoop is a scoop. 

Probably means a developer has more planned for the building. 

Get some good ol speculation going.   Maybe Clayco Development Group is closing on the sale and they are going to put some of their own people/office on 19th floor.

For those with better knowledge.   I can't recall anything special about 19th floor when I came and went from when my wife had an office their.   Maybe their is some amenities or a different floor configuration that is desireable on that floor.   Just recalled going up the middle bank of elevators and walking around the open floor bank of cubicles as she moved up and down the floors from year to year. 

Since Clayco has practically won the bid. I think the architecture firm is the LJC (Lamar Johnson Collaborative). They own them. Also, I also wonder if Clayco is looking to move their offices into the building as part of an expansion plan. I guess we will find out.

^ That makes some sense and would be a big boost of confidence for downtown to have both HOK and Clayco downtown even if Clayco HQ is in Chicago.   Maybe the two can talk McCarthy into downtown at some point as well.   Would be nice to have three large nationally recognized builders/architects in downtown.  Especially when you consider the firms have a fair share of clients coming and going.   

I'm not familiar with that forum, so I have to wonder who futuresooner is, and does he/she have any credibility? Is there any reason at all that we should be getting excited? 

^I'd say they have as much credibility as any other teenager who is planning on attending Oklahoma University someday...   

If Clayco closes on 909 Chestnut, it isn't unreasonable to think they will consider moving their St. Louis offices there.  It seems they have room to expand at their current building if needed, but do they really want to stay in Overland?  A move downtown would be a big culture change for their employees here.  On the other hand, they are a construction company, expanding and making a concerted push into design, technology, development, etc.  They have brought a large architectural and design firm on board, and have established their HQ and Chicago offices in relatively high-profile digs in the Loop.  And locally, they seem to be making more of an effort to invest in the city.  It might be easier to attract the talent they need here for those efforts, if they weren't in an industrial park in Overland.

I think it would be all or nothing though in any move, not just their design subsidiary.  They clearly want all their regional subsidiaries together in the same building.

Anyone know how many employees are at the regional Clayco office still?

dredger wrote: Get some good ol speculation going.   Maybe Clayco Development Group is closing on the sale and they are going to put some of their own people/office on 19th floor.

For those with better knowledge.   I can't recall anything special about 19th floor when I came and went from when my wife had an office their.   Maybe their is some amenities or a different floor configuration that is desireable on that floor.   Just recalled going up the middle bank of elevators and walking around the open floor bank of cubicles as she moved up and down the floors from year to year. 

The only thing I can think that makes the 19th floor somewhat different is that it's the first floor which the lowest elevator bank (serving floors 6-18) does not serve -meaning the floor has some additional floor space that lower floors do not.

^^One caveat to Clayco’s employee count, is that 1200 figure is not likely all office employees. As you know, construction companies have tons of field supervision, labor and support. Many of those 1200 jobs would not be based in the home office. They would be based in job trailers and on jobsites. Saying this, I have no clue how many office employees they have. I work for a local contractor, so my guess would be in range of 200-400 office employees, but that may be high since Clayco moved its HQs to Chicago.

What are the chances Clayco would move back to St. Louis? 

Negligible.

^^ Somebody correct me if I’m wrong. Clayco moved to Chicago to get a piece of the City of Chicago’s municipal work. Bob Clark is tight with Rahm Emanuel, so it was assumed that this relationship would be good for Clayco and their ability to get work with the City of Chicago. Since Rahm E. is no longer the Mayor of Chicago, I have no idea how that impacts Clayco. I assume if for some reason, the work dried up in Chicago, it is possible that Clayco could move HQ back to St. Louis. Now, saying that, Clayco had the entire Emanuel tenure to dive deeper into the Chicago market and gain contacts/connections. There will always be work in Chicago. That is not the issue. The issue would be competition. If Clayco has established strong enough ties in Chicago, they should have no problem continuing to grow in that market.

dredger wrote: Get some good ol speculation going.   Maybe Clayco Development Group is closing on the sale and they are going to put some of their own people/office on 19th floor.

For those with better knowledge.   I can't recall anything special about 19th floor when I came and went from when my wife had an office their.   Maybe their is some amenities or a different floor configuration that is desireable on that floor.   Just recalled going up the middle bank of elevators and walking around the open floor bank of cubicles as she moved up and down the floors from year to year. 

The only thing I can think of is that 18 is an elevator "transfer" floor.  So, 19 is the lowest floor that is not accessible by the first bank of elevators. So maybe those elevators need to be rebuilt first?

It is going to take more than Clayco's St. Louis operations to make this one viable - I doubt that they could take more then 10% of the space - There has to be another major tenant