or consolidate Maryland Heights and Des Peres into one, giant 81-story building. 
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they are just holding off for a traffic study..I don't see this being that big of a deal... chill out they aren't going anywhere IMO
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bpe235 wrote:they are just holding off for a traffic study..I don't see this being that big of a deal... chill out they aren't going anywhere IMO
I agree - hard to get better access than where they are now, plus the amenity of the area? Only place what would be better would be the Hole in Clayton, but they'll never build a new building for the price it would take to put one there.
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Arcturis behind $260 million expansion for Edward Jones
St. Louis Business Journal - March 16, 2007
by Christopher Tritto
The project will add three new buildings in Maryland Heights.
After years of helping clients invest for the future, Edward Jones has grand plans to invest in its own. Over the next five years, the stock brokerage will spend $260 million to transform its St. Louis corporate campuses.
The firm plans to replace several smaller, older buildings with new office space and parking garages on its 60 acres at the southeast corner of the Interstate 270 interchange at Dorsett Road in Maryland Heights. Three buildings totaling 650,000 square feet will rise from the ground up.
A short drive south, the company will add a parking garage and incorporate a 280,000-square-foot building addition at its headquarters at Manchester and Ballas roads in Des Peres.
The combined developments are being designed to accommodate Edward Jones' forecast job creation. The firm plans to add about 10,000 financial advisers over the next 10 years. That will require the company to hire as many as 1,000 additional support services employees here in the coming decade.
"Edward Jones considers this project vital to our ability to serve more clients and accommodate our growth," said Jodi Gay, the Edward Jones principal responsible for facilities. "As we add branch offices in the United States, Canada and the U.K., we naturally need to increase the number of home office associates who support them."
St. Louis-based Arcturis is the architectural firm behind the project. The company, led by President Patricia Whitaker and Chief Operating Officer Vernon Remiger, has designed a master plan for Edward Jones that includes up to 10 buildings. It is focused on the early stages of development in Maryland Heights. Arcturis is developing construction documents and design plans and working with the city to rezone Edward Jones' 60 acres there. It expects to release its first requests for bids for building materials in April.
McCarthy Building Cos. of Ladue will serve as general contractor. The local office of Henneman Engineering Inc. of Champaign, Ill., will handle the mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering work. The St. Louis office of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. of Pasadena, Calif., is the civil engineer on the project. Alper Audi Inc. of St. Louis is the structural engineer.
Arcturis has worked with Edward Jones for several years. It designed upgrades for its existing office space and was the architect for its Maryland Heights data center, which opened in 2002. Whitaker's team has been formulating the brokerage's master plans since then.
Since announcing the project in October, Edward Jones has wasted little time. The first office building -- six stories and 200,000 square feet -- and a 900-car parking garage are set to break ground in Maryland Heights this spring with an ambitious completion date scheduled for fall 2008.
"This first building is a 'flash track' project," Remiger said. "That's faster than 'fast track.' They need to have it because of their growth."
The accelerated time frame poses some challenges. The rising costs of steel and other construction materials can make it difficult to move forward quickly while still conducting a cost-effective bidding process, Remiger said. To help reduce expenses, Edward Jones decided to go with precast concrete instead of stone and will bring a lot of natural light into the building to reduce electrical demand.
Because Edward Jones expects the size and makeup of its staff to change rapidly in the coming years, it requires that the interior work space be easily converted to various configurations, said Bill Burke, Arcturis' principal of planning, and Margaret McDonald, design director. The floor plans are simple and open so that work spaces and cubicles can be laid out in different ways.
In addition to the changes on the Edward Jones campus, access will be improved with a new $30 million interchange at Interstate 270 and Dorsett Road. To pay for it, Maryland Heights will contribute $6.15 million between 2009 and 2011. St. Louis County has committed $5.1 million, the state will pay $17 million and the federal government will pick up $1.8 million of the tab.
The interchange work is scheduled for completion in 2011.
"Like any project of this magnitude, the challenge is keeping all the moving parts coordinated," Gay said.
ctritto@bizjournals.com
Source
there is a rendering on there as well if someone knows how to post it.
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The Fast Track Building to be built by Fall 2008
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Maryland Heights
650,000 square feet!
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$30 million interchange (Probably will look like the Machester/141 with the single traffic light coordinating what was two traffic light areas
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Infusion of new professionals familes into Pattonville and Parkway North
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Stability and growth of St. Louis County jobs
Maryland Heights
650,000 square feet!
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$30 million interchange (Probably will look like the Machester/141 with the single traffic light coordinating what was two traffic light areas
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Infusion of new professionals familes into Pattonville and Parkway North
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Stability and growth of St. Louis County jobs
These campus-style corporate HQ's (Express Scripts, Mastercard, Edward Jones) are getting old. This design is not bad, but they could have done so much better, in my opinion.
At 650,000 square feet, a nice 25-30-story tower or perhaps twin 15-story buildings could have been built.
At 650,000 square feet, a nice 25-30-story tower or perhaps twin 15-story buildings could have been built.
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^ Only 6 stories? Why don't they build something more taller than that, I don't know. Eventually they'll run out of land on their campus and buy out existing space there to expand. A waste IMO. 
^My point exactly. These corporate campuses keep wasting land. But this is not to say that I believe it (new EJ building) should not be built.
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10-intuition wrote:^ Only 6 stories? Why don't they build something more taller than that, I don't know. Eventually they'll run out of land on their campus and buy out existing space there to expand. A waste IMO.
These types of firms like the massive open planned floorplates because it leads to higher worker satisfaction and productivity. You may not like the design, but they have a reason for doing it. When team members in the same division are scattered all over a 40 story tower, especially in a field like Financial advising, it's not as smooth an operation as having the entire team on a single floorplate.
Now, if only they can intermingle some residential and retail into the development...
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If nothing else, EJ knows how to squeeze dollars and cents out of everything. If they're building low-rises and if they purchase surorunding buildings for expansion, they're doing so because it makes $$ sense.
that would be the express scripts building. It looks like a new high school if you ask me. Still, most importantly, they stayed in st louis and have access to metrolink.
EJ knows how to squeeze dollars and cents out of everything
migueltejada wrote:
These types of firms like the massive open planned floorplates because it leads to higher worker satisfaction and productivity. You may not like the design, but they have a reason for doing it. When team members in the same division are scattered all over a 40 story tower, especially in a field like Financial advising, it's not as smooth an operation as having the entire team on a single floorplate.
Now, if only they can intermingle some residential and retail into the development...
While the design, to me, is a bit underwhelming based on the partial rendering, Edward Jones is certainly entitled to build whatever they desire as long it fits zoning and design regulations. Perhaps my opinion might sway after I see the full rendering and campus layout.
In the meantime, I maintain these built-to-suit sprawling corporate campuses (outside of laboratories) are becoming a bit mundane and they are wasting land even if land/buildings are being recycled. Ever see Sprint/Nextel's hideous monstrosity of a campus in Kansas City? What ever happened to signature towers? Towers and buildings that make a statement?
Questions: Based on your assertion, why did AG Edwards build a 15-story tower? I might not like their campus layout, but they did build a 15-story tower. Why did Stifel Nicolaus recently move into One Financial Plaza downtown, which I am guessing has small floor plates? Why are financial services firms in sprawling Atlanta and Charlotte locating in towers when land is available for campuses in those metros?
Here's another big one. It is the tallest in Jersey. Why did Goldman Sachs move into this mammoth tower on the Jersey shore facing Manhattan? (I've been directly underneath this tower and actually have taken photos of it.) Come on, it's not like New Jersey doesn't have land for a campus near NYC.
Goldman Sachs tower, designed by famed architect I.M. Pei
It's 42-stories, 781 feet and LEED certified
KMOV had a piece on the Friday 10pm news about this. Things are starting to get rough between Edward Jones and Des Peres. Ed J is threatening to move all St. Louis operations to Tempe.
migueltejada wrote:10-intuition wrote:^ Only 6 stories? Why don't they build something more taller than that, I don't know. Eventually they'll run out of land on their campus and buy out existing space there to expand. A waste IMO.
These types of firms like the massive open planned floorplates because it leads to higher worker satisfaction and productivity. You may not like the design, but they have a reason for doing it. When team members in the same division are scattered all over a 40 story tower, especially in a field like Financial advising, it's not as smooth an operation as having the entire team on a single floorplate.
Now, if only they can intermingle some residential and retail into the development...
Also, many suburbs have height restrictions -- so when they court big corporate HQs like this, it forces the corporations to build sprawling campuses with 3-4 story buildings, instead of denser construction.
Arch City wrote:In the meantime, I maintain these built-to-suit sprawling corporate campuses (outside of laboratories) are becoming a bit mundane and they are wasting land even if land/buildings are being recycled. Ever see Sprint/Nextel's hideous monstrosity of a campus in Kansas City? What ever happened to signature towers? Towers and buildings that make a statement?
Arch, I understand your point, but many corporations are skeptical of building towers. There is compelling evidence that towers reduce productivity. Look at what happened to Sears when they moved into the Sears Tower in the 1970s -- administrative productivity tanked, and by the 80s Sears moved out to the suburbs. At the time this was unforeseen, but since then it is looked at as a case study in how not to build an HQ.
I know someone who's got a landmark 81-story tower on the drawing board just waiting for a tenant...
dweebe wrote:KMOV had a piece on the Friday 10pm news about this. Things are starting to get rough between Edward Jones and Des Peres. Ed J is threatening to move all St. Louis operations to Tempe.
The threat to move does not surprise me at all. Although the jury is still out on the design, for me, Des Peres is being shortsighted. Did they actually ask Jones to find another location to expand? Then the mayor says Des Peres is friendly to business? Jones came in bought a vacate building for their HQ’s, then expanded into a new development next door bringing hundreds of jobs to Des Peres. EJ has contributed enormously to the tax base of Des Peres.
I have gone to West County Center numerous times, and even during the Christmas season that intersection of Manchester is not that bad. It is much better since the recent improvements. The design flaws are the arterial roads within the West County Center complex, which allows all of the traffic attempting to flow from the mall to back up.
Tempe is warm and ready. Just because there is a cease-fire between the two, I wouldn’t doubt EJ is already calling officials in Tempe exploring their options. And when the officials in Tempe get word of the conflict, if they already haven’t, don’t think they won’t be trying to lure EJ from St. Louis. Why would Des Peres open that door?
This is a downside of having so many damn municipalities too. Too much arbitrary decision-making. This is why many companies should start considering downtown St. Louis again. Centene has been taken through the wringer in Clayton and now this. Unfortunately, the development bigwigs in the city don’t appear to be confident enough to go after these companies.
View the KMOV video below.
**Video**
Unfortunately, for companies, downtown st. louis is almost COMPLETELY out of the question. They don't even consider it. It's ridiculous and infuriating, maybe that will change with people moving into Illinois, but man, DT needs to be more attractive to businesses, the 1% ET (as has been said) is slowly strangling it to death...
As a former employe of EJ, I can tell you that this is not the first time Des Peres and EJ have gone round and round. Des Peres has restrictions on exterior buildinglighting and signage and would not allow EJ to do any of either to the building at Manchester and Ballas.
Doesn't make much sense when you have a huge new mall next door that is allowed to put up exterior signs and light their buildings up at night.
And when EJ built their new building at Kelley Memorial and Manchester, they lit the heck out of it and put up all kinds of EJ signage because the building is in Town & Country.
Doesn't make much sense when you have a huge new mall next door that is allowed to put up exterior signs and light their buildings up at night.
And when EJ built their new building at Kelley Memorial and Manchester, they lit the heck out of it and put up all kinds of EJ signage because the building is in Town & Country.
Hmm. Not good to be pushing a major St. Louis company into looking at other options.
But at the same time while Des Peres is stupid, I am sure there are more than enough leaders both in St. Louis County who will fight to keep the hq and even more importantly, work to steal it from Des Peres. Don't think that the Ed Jones HQ would look nice as an anchor to the new downtown planned by Creve Coure?
But at the same time while Des Peres is stupid, I am sure there are more than enough leaders both in St. Louis County who will fight to keep the hq and even more importantly, work to steal it from Des Peres. Don't think that the Ed Jones HQ would look nice as an anchor to the new downtown planned by Creve Coure?
JMedwick wrote:Hmm. Not good to be pushing a major St. Louis company into looking at other options.
But at the same time while Des Peres is stupid, I am sure there are more than enough leaders both in St. Louis County who will fight to keep the hq and even more importantly, work to steal it from Des Peres. Don't think that the Ed Jones HQ would look nice as an anchor to the new downtown planned by Creve Coure?
You know Maryland Heights wouldn't have a problem weilding their big eminent domain stick. EJ already has two pretty good sized buildings just north of Westport you can see from 270. (Someone told me they're call centers)
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^ Is EJ really seriously considering picking up shop just because Des Peres wants them to hold off until a traffic study can be completed. I could be way off, but I feel like companies threaten to move all the time yet rarely do. Isn't it just part of the push and pull in negotiations?
JMedwick wrote:Don't think that the Ed Jones HQ would look nice as an anchor to the new downtown planned by Creve Coure?
Creve Coeur would love to have an EJ HQ - how about adjacent to the SmurFit Stone HQ which moved from Clayton? It wouldn't be the first time a municipality lost an HQ by thinking it had more leverage than it really did. Seriously though, I think that would be unlikely; my guess would be an expansion of the already-existing Westport / Maryland Heights campus.
dweebe wrote:EJ already has two pretty good sized buildings just north of Westport you can see from 270. (Someone told me they're call centers)
More than two -- quite a lot of the property on the north end of Progress Parkway (SE of Dorsett & 270) is EJ facilities.