urbanSTL

I had some trouble with the Lamping part earlier, but I'm listening to the second clip right now and it is streaming perfectly.

The post has an article this morning on how the old Centene Clayton parcel has been sold to a developer.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/s ... enDocument



Reading the article, it looks like the city of Clayton was unaware of the sale as was Centene. Still, you can't help but wonder if Centene has a backup plan to develop on the initial site in Clayton. This sure would be better than moving outside the region, but what a blow it would be to downtown.

Two of Clayton's largest employers, Centene Corp. and Brown Shoe, are in the midst of headquarters relocation efforts that could take both companies out of the city within the next few years. Or not.



Centene's Corp.'s plan to move to downtown St. Louis, announced last year, is still up in the air, according to those close to the deal. Centene had planned to build a new high-rise at the corner of Broadway and Walnut Street near Busch Stadium, but the proposal hinges on financing and terms with Cordish, the developer of Ballpark Village, that are not finalized. Delays in the start of Ballpark Village are yet to be resolved, leading to speculation that Centene could stay at its current location at 7711 Carondelet Ave.



At stake are 1,200 jobs that Centene said it will ultimately grow to at its headquarters within the next three to five years.



"There are not any formal talks," said Clayton Mayor Linda Goldstein about the city's interaction with Centene.



Speculation in recent weeks centered around the potential sale of three properties on Forsyth that the city of Clayton sought to acquire through eminent domain to make way for Centene's headquarters expansion. Having the properties under control gives Centene greater negotiating power with Cordish, according to sources.



"We continue to work to finalize elements of the project downtown," said Centene spokesman Ken Fields.







http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... ocus5.html

This could be bad......... or not. Maybe they will.... maybe they wont.....

alright i say lock all the parties in a room untill this thing finally gets done

Thursday, March 20, 2008 - 4:55 PM CDT

Barry Pessin's purchase puts Centene in good position

St. Louis Business Journal - by Lisa R. Brown



A key property in Centene Corp.'s headquarters expansion and relocation efforts is back in play.



Barry Pessin, a private developer, has a commercial building on Forsyth Boulevard in Clayton under contract from Dan Sheehan. The property is within the redevelopment area Centene formerly targeted as its new headquarters site.



It is unknown what Pessin's purchase of Dan Sheehan's 10,800-square-foot office building at 7718 Forsyth Blvd. means for Centene's headquarters relocation efforts.



Centene is in final negotiations on terms to build its new $250 million headquarters at Ballpark Village with the co-developers on the project, Baltimore-based Cordish Co and the St. Louis Cardinals. Centene, which provides health-care programs and related services, is seeking to buy a two-block site at the corner of Broadway and Walnut downtown to build a 700,000-square-foot office tower with street-level retail. The planned headquarters would be adjacent to Ballpark Village's first phase, a $387 mixed-use project that includes plans for office space, retail and condos.



Negotiations between Centene Chief Executive Michael Neidorff and Cordish officials have dragged on for eight months, with no signed agreement yet in place.



Sheehan, Debbie Pyzyk and David Danforth, who each own a commercial building in the 7700 block of Forsyth, fought the city of Clayton's efforts to take ownership of their properties through eminent domain all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court, which ruled in the property owners' favor in 2007. Centene had planned to build a $210 million headquarters on the site that includes the Forsyth properties. Instead, Centene changed course and announced in September 2007 that it was abandoning its efforts to build in Clayton and instead would move to a new building downtown.



Sheehan said he's now willing to sell his property to Pessin and expects to close within 60 days. "We have ours under contract," Sheehan said. Sheehan, president of Dolan Realtors, said he's informed his office tenants in the building, including Edward L. Bakewell Realtors, Decker Tailoring and Diversified Financial Services, of the impending sale. "They will have adequate time to make a move and relocate," he said.



Pessin is keeping quiet about his plans for the property. Sources have confirmed Pessin also has Danforth's building at 7732 Forsyth Blvd. and Kohner Properties' building at 7730 Forsyth Blvd. under contract. Pyzyk, who is president of Kohner Properties, did not return calls for comment.



Pessin, a University City resident, is president and co-owner of Brentmoor Retirement Communities. The company owns and manages several senior living communities in St. Louis. A related real estate management company owned by Pessin and Lawrence Greenberg, Brookview Group Ltd., is based at 225 S. Meramec Ave. in Clayton.



"I'm not at liberty to say anything at this point in time," Pessin said. Asked whether his purchase of Sheehan's property could make way for Centene's headquarters at the site, Pessin replied: "Everybody is waiting to see what happens at Ballpark Village."



Barbara Geisman, deputy mayor of the city of St. Louis, said the city is still working on getting Centene to relocate downtown. "Everyone is still working toward that," she said.



Those close to the negotiations between Centene and Cordish said having the three properties available to Centene now could serve as a negotiating tactic between the two parties. "This (Clayton property) has given Centene a strengthened position with Ballpark Village," said a source close to the negotiations. "Centene is closer than it's ever been to coming to an agreement with Cordish."

i realllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly hope so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Centene = woman on her period.... sporadic and unpredictable.......

Magnatron wrote:Centene = woman on her period.... sporadic and unpredictable.......

They are VERY predictable at that stage. VERY.



Unlike Centene.......

KTVI Fox 2 has repoerted that their sources confirm Centene has pulled out of BPV. Hopefully we can get some more clarification.

I was just going to post this. They also reported that Centene pulled their design team off the deal all the way back in November.



If this part is true it would be very interesting to find out what has been causing the delay since Nov. and why this info hasn't been released until March.

I can actually believe the part about the design team. Why waste your time on something that may not happen. I bet there has been some work though. But Centene leaving still has to make me wonder. What is the real problem? It's got to be Centene and Cordish not wanting to play ball with each other. I still remain confident about BPV, without Centene, which is the opposite of how I felt a couple weeks ago, but I still gotta believe at this point that Centene will happen. I'm optimistic, maybe to a fault, but I just have a feeling. At least I'll have plenty of warning that Centene is not happening.



Somebody in the city really needs to be pushing this issue. Centene can not be lost, at least downtown. I could care less if they end up in BPV as long as they are downtown. Even though Centene was the most exciting part of BPV...

They left an e off Centene, but here's a link



Link: http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/New ... geId=3.2.1



No Centen Corp. In Ballpark Village

Last Edited: Monday, 24 Mar 2008, 7:58 AM CDT

Created: Monday, 24 Mar 2008, 7:58 AM CDT

(KTVI - myFOXstl.com) --



That big muddy mess next to Busch Stadium downtown will stay that way for awhile. FOX 2 News has learned Centene Corporation won't be moving into the new Ballpark Village after all.



The Clayton-based firm is out of the downtown development next to Busch Stadium.



FOX 2 Charles Jaco also learned.



Centene dismissed its design team for the Ballpark Village project last November telling them "not to bother."



Centene manages Medicaid contracts for several states.



St. Louis city leaders announced last September Centene would be moving to Ballpark Village.



Officials called it the city's biggest business deal since the 1950's but that deal was obviously not finalized.

Oh man, that's terrible news. If the city loses Centene that will be a huge blow to the momentum going on. I sure hope that the city was able to offer Centene another spot downtown for their development.



If Cordish was to blame, the Cardinals should fire them immediately. They would be doing the city a much bigger favor if they would then just divide up the land into regular city blocks and sell them to developer's who would construct new condo towers and/or speculative office space.

MattnSTL wrote:Somebody in the city really needs to be pushing this issue. Centene can not be lost, at least downtown. I could care less if they end up in BPV as long as they are downtown. Even though Centene was the most exciting part of BPV...

Of course they can. The most important point in the whole negotiation is whether Centene stays in St. Louis -- which includes Clayton or even, God forbid (and I'm not suggesting they've even thought of this) Winghaven.



Clayton illegally tried to seize property for private use. Now the free market has allowed that property to be sold. I'd bet Centene stays in Clayton, which was its original plan all along before government entities started throwing around subsidies and illegal seizures.



And now we've got Ballpark Village, sold to the taxpayers as as done deal, then resold to the taxpayers as a done deal that would give a giant subsidy to a corporation. Nevermind that the incredibly "desireable" location next to the heavily subsidized ballpark appears to be grossly insufficient for attracting a company to rent there.



Here's a radical thought: Maybe the marketplace is saying that Ballpark Village shoudn't happen.

This is so freaking predictable. How did the city leaders let this fall through. I would have screwed off Cordish to keep Centene. Hopefully they still want a spot downtown or Clayton and dont choose to move to the sunbelt.

Very disappointing news.



I think Cordish should be fired.

bonwich wrote:Here's a radical thought: Maybe the marketplace is saying that Ballpark Village shoudn't happen.

Or that it should happen, but in an initial minimalist sense while still allowing for future scale. Like Joe says, look for Centene to relocate its headquarters in Clayton. Match the Centene announcement that BPV is a no go with this article, and that's what you'll find to be logical. Ref: http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stor ... ily64.html



In other news, Centene stock has dropped 50% since January and the S&P may soon lower its rating on the company.

innov8ion wrote:

bonwich wrote:Here's a radical thought: Maybe the marketplace is saying that Ballpark Village shoudn't happen.

Or that it should happen, but in an initial minimalist sense while still allowing for future scale.

Agreed. Unfortunately, there are already bunches of subsidies and promises in play, and it's going to be very hard for the average Joe (as if such a thing exists ) to figure out if he's gotten his taxpayer's money's worth for what has already by subsidized versus what finally gets built.

^ Aren't there advocacy groups that do that? And yeah, it's probably not easy to sort out.

Well, if it is true that Centene pulled their design team off the project in November, that would be quite a revelation, since the Centene deal was announced in late September. Centene must have had fairly substantial discussions with Cordish and the city, where most issues were resolved and a preliminary agreement was reached, prior to the announcement. And I believe the press release said that Centene planned to start construction in 2008. So for them to pull the design team at that point means that something happened in that less than two month period that Centene felt was irreconcilable. It is difficult to imagine what that could be, but it obviously must have been a major issue. For negotiations to have broken down so completely, means that one of the following occurred:



1) Preliminary agreements were rejected because one or more of the parties was not negotiating in good faith.



2) There was a fundamental lapse in, or lack of, communication between the parties. I could see this happening if information was being relayed between parties through another party, say city officials or the Cardinals, for example. That third party might have unintentionally mischaracterized - or blatantly lied - about another party's intent.



3) There was a fundamental personality clash between two or more parties which significantly reduced Centene's desire to be involved with the project.



4) Preliminary agreements were rejected, or a previously-resolved major issue reopened for negotiation after there was some fundamental shift in one or more parties' ability to live up to their obligations, such as their ability to obtain financing.



5) One of the parties, while still accepting the preliminary agreement in principal, substantially shifted the project timeline.



It is difficult to imagine any of the parties being so unprofessional that 1, 2, or 3 would be the primary cause of the deal's collapse, but it is not out of the realm of possibility. It was most likely 4, 5, or some combination thereof, with a bit of 3 as well. But I have a nagging feeling that in actuality, this whole project and the negotiation process have been flawed from Day One, and all five of the above were factors.

Or, of course, there's always the possiblity that Albert Pujols really wasn't on the steroid-user list.