Scottrade would add offices, garage to county campus
By Jerri Stroud
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/14/2007
Scottrade Inc. could nearly double the size of its headquarters in west St. Louis County with a proposed seven-story office building and a new parking garage just south of the brokerage firm's existing office building.
Scottrade, a discount brokerage company, has been growing fast in recent years and has big plans for growth. The company's revenue quadrupled in the five years ended Sept. 30. It recently surpassed Charles Schwab to become the discount broker with the largest number of branch offices, 309.
In an interview in June, Scottrade Chief Executive Rodger Riney said he expects Scottrade to have 500 branches by 2010. The company likely would need more headquarters employees to support those branches as well as its busy online trading site, Scottrade.com.
Scottrade referred questions about the new building and garage to John Nations, a lawyer who is representing the company before the county planning commission. Nations said the new building is part of Scottrade's long-term expansion plan. No estimate of its cost was available, but he said the company hopes to begin construction next year.
The plans show the new building and garage taking up most of Scottrade's current parking lot, just south of the five-story Scottrade office building at 12800 Corporate Hill Drive. The site is north of the Des Peres Cinema and northwest of the intersection of Manchester Road and Interstate 270.
The new building would have 201,600 square feet, about 11 percent more than the old building. The garage would have 1,403 spaces, more than doubling the amount of parking in the company's surface lot.
Overhead pedestrian bridges would connect the garage and the new building as well as the new and old buildings, Nations said.
Nations will present the plan Monday at a County Planning Commission meeting that begins at 7 p.m. in the County Council chambers in Clayton. The company has filed a site plan and traffic study with the county. Arcturis, a design firm in St. Louis, is the architect.
Doug Morgan, commission chairman, said the new building could hold 350 employees.
"It looks like an appropriate use for that area," Morgan said. "I can't say if I am in favor until we consider the traffic and other impacts, but it fits the existing zoning for that location."
The traffic study, prepared by Burns & McDonnell, says the new building isn't likely to have a big impact on traffic along Des Peres Road, which runs along the west and north sides of Scottrade's 6.7-acre property. But it could add to morning traffic backups on the exit from westbound Manchester at Des Peres.
The study recommends widening the exit ramp to allow for two left-turn lanes at the intersection, adding a second lane on northbound Des Peres and installing a new traffic signal at Des Peres and Corporate Hill on the north end of the campus.
Nations said the company would work with the county and state highway departments to find solutions for any traffic problems.
Scottrade's building is less than a half-mile from Edward Jones' headquarters in Des Peres. Edward Jones, another brokerage firm, recently agreed to scale back the planned expansion of its headquarters in response to Des Peres' concerns about the size of the project and its potential impact on traffic at the busy I-270 and Manchester intersection.
Riddhi Trivedi-St. Clair and Phil Sutin provided information for this story.
jerristroud@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8384
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/busine ... enDocument
I know it would be nice to have ST and EJ DT, but having those two HQ right across the street from each other is pretty impressive IMO.
