John Hancock on the Hancock and Kelley show just said he is hearing that a major tech company will be announcing a HQ relocation to STL within the next 12-18 months. The obvious guess here would be Square, any other guesses?

EDIT: added a ? to the subject line, it looked like a statement of fact and click-bait.

^I don't think it will be an HQ relocation as much as a significant investment by a tech company in jobs, operations and physical presents. But, I hope you're right.

pdm_ad wrote: ↑

Nov 25, 2018

John Hancock on the Hancock and Kelley show just said he is hearing that a major tech company will be announcing a HQ relocation to STL within the next 12-18 months. The obvious guess here would be Square, any other guesses?

EDIT: added a ? to the subject line, it looked like a statement of fact and click-bait.

I wish it was sooner than that. A lot can change in 12-18 months (if that means it is announced then). Does he mean the announcement would be in 12-18 or the actual relocation?

The Mayor wrote: ↑

Nov 26, 2018

jshank83 wrote: ↑

Nov 25, 2018

pdm_ad wrote: ↑

Nov 25, 2018

John Hancock on the Hancock and Kelley show just said he is hearing that a major tech company will be announcing a HQ relocation to STL within the next 12-18 months. The obvious guess here would be Square, any other guesses?

EDIT: added a ? to the subject line, it looked like a statement of fact and click-bait.

I wish it was sooner than that. A lot can change in 12-18 months (if that means it is announced then). Does he mean the announcement would be in 12-18 or the actual relocation?

I wonder if someone maybe just misspoke. 12-18 months makes far more sense for a potential relocation timeline. If people are already hearing rumors I'd imagine that an announcement is forthcoming. But I have no real insight on this kind of stuff so who knows.

If it's true, my money is on Square considering their recent investments here in St. Louis coupled with that new tax levied on large tech companies in San Francisco. Maybe a Twitter presence since there is an STL connection with Dorsey and Twitter is also located in San Francisco, but Dorsey is on record saying that tax won't affect Twitter nearly as bad as it will Square.

Let's hope something is announced soon!

It would be nice to at least have a small twitter office. Maybe one day.

My attention was partially divided when Hancock started making the comments but I thought he said that a company would make an announcement 'within' 12 - 18 months. So, the way I perceived it, the announcement could come at any point between now and Nov 2019 - May 2020.

Kelley joked with him about spending time in Silicon Valley but I suspect the company has been talking with state officials about tax breaks and Hancock obviously has deep Republican ties at the state level.

Completely speculative on my part but would one the major fintech players outside of Square, like Apple Pay, consider St Louis? Maybe a play like Amazon is doing with having a logistics hub in Nashville w 4000 employees there instead of the high cost coast. A workforce that takes care of the machinery but doesn't necessarily have to be at a corporate HQ nor can necessarily move & afford some of the higher prices regions such as Silicon Valley/San Fran, Seattle, New York, and so on. Actually surprised that it hasn't happened more with Pharma/Bioscience.

St Louis would have some things going for it. Has strong financial services sector and established tech scene with some solid San Fran/Silicon valley connections in both sectors via Wells Fargo Securities and Dorsey/Square/Twitter, Certainly has the infrastructure in place whether it be cheap available space & strong fiber network. Finally, a metro area with affordable prices for its workforce, no housing shortage relative to coastal cities & sufficient education institutions to support 2,000 to 4,000 jobs that might come with it (a short distance away from couple other metro areas). For good measure, a state admin/governor willing to go look for jobs for, pluses off having metro regions..

In other words, the region isn't going to support a big tech big time move but a decent size satellite office and the infrastructure & skills set to make it work.

they were indeed talking about Square, tho following up with people in the know most think John misstated Squares actual intentions, moving some jobs here but not the HQ

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Nov 27, 2018

they were indeed talking about Square, tho following up with people in the know most think John misstated Squares actual intentions, moving some jobs here but not the HQ

Are these jobs in addition to the ones already announced?

^ whats been talked about in the last few months but wouldnt surprise if its a bit more if the state steps up with a good offer. I know there are plenty of Square employees ready to make the move, they're done with the SF cost of living and St.Louis is looking mighty good to them

Square has 2,000+ employees. Doesn't seem like it would be out of the question to move the bulk of that workforce here if they are already going to have 25% here in the next few years.

I have always held out hope for a satellite Twitter office. Hard to see that happening since they now just have over 3k employees and dropping. A man can dream though.

I recall Dorsey telling Mayor Krewson, back when he was here for the Square Product Launch a few months ago, that "what part of St. Louis should he invest in". She said "Downtown". So MAYBE this has something to do with it. Twitter would be a big win and I see Twitter having an office here, but I think Square is the company that will be the player here. As for the location of the office, it comes down to these locations in Downtown.
1. Post Dispatch Building
2. Railway Exchange

I guess we will have t wait and see, but I think we will get something from Dorsey for sure.

chriss752 wrote: ↑

Nov 29, 2018

As for the location of the office, it comes down to these locations in Downtown.
1. Post Dispatch Building
2. Railway Exchange

Or anywhere else.

pattimagee wrote: ↑

Nov 28, 2018

I think an interesting thing to think about is if they move the 200 employees they have here... well that would probably fit in McKelvey's new Post Dispatch building, but that's about it... And if they moved 500+ here, then I would assume they'll be in the Railway Exchange building? and then maybe they just keep adding employees as they add a new floor every time? That'd be amazing to see.

The Post Dispatch is 235,000 sq ft. It can hold a lot more than 200 Square employees. Even with the Post taking the top 2 floors, lets call it 75,000 sq ft, that would leave 165,000 sq ft for Square. At 200 sq ft per employee, that would equate to 825 employees.

Unless there is plan for major growth, I'd love for them to pull the trigger on RRX. PD is surrounded by parking lots. Perhaps it could be a combination of Twitter and Square, where Square is the tenant at RRX, though, they wouldn't own it, which could be an issue.

All in all, if we get 800+ workers in Downtown proper at RRX, it'd be a huge win.

While not a HQ, an informed friend of mine has info that it will be announced sometime in 2019, that Twitter is going to open up an office or some presence here in STL. I gather that is what Hancock is talking about.
Take that information for what it’s worth. My friend will not reveal his sources. He seems very confident though.

stlien wrote: ↑

Nov 29, 2018

The Post Dispatch is 235,000 sq ft. It can hold a lot more than 200 Square employees. Even with the Post taking the top 2 floors, lets call it 75,000 sq ft, that would leave 165,000 sq ft for Square. At 200 sq ft per employee, that would equate to 825 employees.

What I do think is all but certain is something is coming to the building.... I don't think Mckelvey is the kind of guy who sits on things and the building permit for the Post-Dispatch already has been issued.

As an aside, it appears that there's been quite a bit of work going on over at The Globe Building down the street as the owners work to beef up its occupancy and turn it into a space attractive to tech companies. So I could see that part of Tucker becoming much more exciting before too long.