urbanSTL

airforceguy1 wrote: ↑

Apr 10, 2024

BJC buys former Panera Bread headquarters in Sunset Hills

BJC Health has purchased the former headquarters of Panera Bread in south St. Louis County. 
The health care system bought the 116,300-square-foot building, at Watson and South Geyer roads in Sunset Hills, earlier this year for $9.9 million, according to a report from commercial real estate firm JLL. 

It's not clear what BJC plans to do with the property, at 3660 South Geyer; a spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  Panera Bread, known locally as St. Louis Bread Co., left the 1980s-era office building last year for smaller space in Fenton. Panera's new office is located on the campus of corporate incentive company Maritz, which has leased excess space on its south campus. The Geyer Road property was last sold in 2013 to a Los Angeles-based real estate company for $17.3 million, according to St. Louis County property records. 

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/bjc-buys-former-panera-bread-headquarters-in-sunset-hills/article_918d15c2-f762-11ee-bffa-db44aa49f1e7.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

While Turnbull said it’s something Canadians wouldn’t like to hear, he claims Canada is “just not open for business” for a company like his due to its building code requirements.

“Introducing a new building technology like ours requires you to go through leaps and hurdles with the Canadian government,” Turnbull said. Turnbull is founder and CEO of MBS, which launched in 2019. The firm has created a construction system it says can make building panels off-site, providing “ready-to-assemble” buildings that can be developed more quickly than with traditional construction methods. Turnbull said he believes the company’s technology could be used in commercial real estate projects, while also being an option to use for affordable housing and disaster relief.
Turnbull targeted the U.S. as MBS' home base soon after launching the company, considering several cities for its headquarters. In addition to St. Louis, options included Los Angeles; Memphis; Nashville, Tennessee; Las Vegas; and Everett, Washington.
“Everything just kind of clicked in St. Louis. It just made sense,” Turnbull said. “You're landlocked in the middle of America. You have the Mississippi for shipping our panels on barges. You have an incredible infrastructure system of rail and road, highways and whatnot.”
Turnball made his first trip to St. Louis in December 2022. That visit prompted his decision to relocate here, where he has ingrained himself in the community. He’s added several St. Louisans, including Build-A-Bear Workshop founder Maxine Clark, to his firm’s advisory board. Turnbull said MBS has entered into a workforce training partnership with Ranken Technical College and has a letter of intent with Good Developments Group, the entity behind the proposed $1.2 billion Gateway South construction innovation district planned just south of the Gateway Arch.

“The collaboration centers on the multiyear Gateway South project at Chouteau's Landing, where MBS will play a pivotal role in implementing our panelized building system. The partnership is poised to achieve significant cost savings and efficiency by utilizing MBS' cutting-edge technology,” Turnbull said.
He said the connection system used for MBS’ building panels is its “secret sauce.” MBS’ panels, made off-site, include metal rods that are tightened into the floor sections of a building, Turnball said. The foundation of a building developed with MBS’ technology includes a “rail system” that puts the panels in place. Turnbull likens the system to putting together ready-to-assemble furniture that requires using screws and nuts to tighten pieces and hold them in place.
MBS has yet to commercialize its construction system, with Turnbull saying that will occur once it has a manufacturing facility. It plans to move into a 30,000-square-foot space inside the former Killark Electric headquarters at 3940 Martin Luther King Drive, according to Turnbull. The Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority, the city’s urban renewal board, in October 2023 acquired the 150,000-square-foot building to use as a workforce development hub. Turnbull said MBS will temporarily be based at Ranken Technical College’s campus prior to relocating to its permanent space.

airforceguy1 wrote: ↑

May 30, 2024

Why a Canadian construction tech company chose St. Louis for its HQ

While Turnbull said it’s something Canadians wouldn’t like to hear, he claims Canada is “just not open for business” for a company like his due to its building code requirements.

“Introducing a new building technology like ours requires you to go through leaps and hurdles with the Canadian government,” Turnbull said. Turnbull is founder and CEO of MBS, which launched in 2019. The firm has created a construction system it says can make building panels off-site, providing “ready-to-assemble” buildings that can be developed more quickly than with traditional construction methods. Turnbull said he believes the company’s technology could be used in commercial real estate projects, while also being an option to use for affordable housing and disaster relief.
Turnbull targeted the U.S. as MBS' home base soon after launching the company, considering several cities for its headquarters. In addition to St. Louis, options included Los Angeles; Memphis; Nashville, Tennessee; Las Vegas; and Everett, Washington.
“Everything just kind of clicked in St. Louis. It just made sense,” Turnbull said. “You're landlocked in the middle of America. You have the Mississippi for shipping our panels on barges. You have an incredible infrastructure system of rail and road, highways and whatnot.”
Turnball made his first trip to St. Louis in December 2022. That visit prompted his decision to relocate here, where he has ingrained himself in the community. He’s added several St. Louisans, including Build-A-Bear Workshop founder Maxine Clark, to his firm’s advisory board. Turnbull said MBS has entered into a workforce training partnership with Ranken Technical College and has a letter of intent with Good Developments Group, the entity behind the proposed $1.2 billion Gateway South construction innovation district planned just south of the Gateway Arch.

“The collaboration centers on the multiyear Gateway South project at Chouteau's Landing, where MBS will play a pivotal role in implementing our panelized building system. The partnership is poised to achieve significant cost savings and efficiency by utilizing MBS' cutting-edge technology,” Turnbull said.
He said the connection system used for MBS’ building panels is its “secret sauce.” MBS’ panels, made off-site, include metal rods that are tightened into the floor sections of a building, Turnball said. The foundation of a building developed with MBS’ technology includes a “rail system” that puts the panels in place. Turnbull likens the system to putting together ready-to-assemble furniture that requires using screws and nuts to tighten pieces and hold them in place.
MBS has yet to commercialize its construction system, with Turnbull saying that will occur once it has a manufacturing facility. It plans to move into a 30,000-square-foot space inside the former Killark Electric headquarters at 3940 Martin Luther King Drive, according to Turnbull. The Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority, the city’s urban renewal board, in October 2023 acquired the 150,000-square-foot building to use as a workforce development hub. Turnbull said MBS will temporarily be based at Ranken Technical College’s campus prior to relocating to its permanent space.

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/inno/stories/profiles/2024/05/30/module-building-systems-st-louis-construction-tech.html

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

May 31, 2024

^^Thanks for that airforceguy1. I'm getting really excited about that Chouteau's Landing project. Was just driving around there last weekend. It could really be something. This gives me just a little bit more confidence in the project.

Printerior, a 3D printing company based in St. Louis, is expanding its operations and will soon grow its physical footprint.

The company — which got its start manufacturing 3D printing materials made from recycled plastics — has now launched large-format 3D printing services. It's partnering with interior designers and architecture firms to produce one-of-a-kind pieces and projects, such as furniture, columns and curved walls, said co-founder Trent Esser. And with the new offering comes the need for more space. The company, currently located at 5145 Delmar Blvd. in the Delmar Maker District, is in the process of finalizing a lease for a “much larger” office space and manufacturing facility that it hopes to move into in July, Esser said. He declined to share any details of the new space, such as its address or square footage, ahead of signing the lease.
“Our focus is on opening up the ability for designers and architects to have creativity, along with being able to use sustainable materials,” he said.
Esser founded Printerior in 2020 with his friend and business partner, Hayden Seidel, while they were both students at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The pair originally envisioned the company as a large-format 3D printing business that utilized sustainable materials, but they were forced to pivot after the Covid-19 pandemic hit and negatively affected the market, he said.
As a result, the company instead spent its first year or so solely focused on manufacturing filaments, or the thermoplastic wires extruded through a 3D printer and built up to form the final product, Esser said. However, Printerior's filaments are made from recycled plastics, whereas about 90% of filaments most commonly used in 3D printing are made from petroleum-based plastics that require virgin raw materials, or materials extracted directly from nature, he said.
“At the end of the day, you’re using resources to develop a brand-new (filament) that doesn’t really need to be virgin for any specific reason,” Esser said. “We developed those exact same (filaments) but in a recycled form, and so that way we can have a one-to-one substitute for what is currently on the market and what is currently highly used by consumers.”

Printerior’s filament business — along with grants, including a $50,000 Arch Grant in 2021 and a $67,400 grant from the state's Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority (EIERA) in 2023 — helped fund its expansion, allowing the company to launch its 3D print service business, Esser said. He declined to comment on the total amount of capital the company has raised through grants and its annual revenue.
The company began with small-scale industrial projects, such as producing casings for manufacturing companies or prototyping new products for startups, Esser said.

Concrete Strategies, a subsidiary of Clayco Inc., has signed a lease to relocate its operational service, innovation and training center to an office building at 5790 Campus Parkway in Hazelwood, in north St. Louis County. The Concrete Strategies administrative headquarters, currently located at Clayco's headquarters in Overland, will move to Berkeley this year as part of Clayco’s own move to a new headquarters.

The move is planned for September, said the president of Concrete Strategies, Pat Moriarity. The operations of the Clayco subsidiary are currently divided between two sites — the administrative side is located at the current Clayco St. Louis headquarters in Overland, and an industrial concrete facility and warehouse operation is housed at 7400 N. Broadway in north St. Louis.
Bob Clark, founder and chairman of Clayco, originally wanted to combine the two Concrete Strategies locations into one site at 4800 Goodfellow Blvd., a property owned by the city of St. Louis that the city has tried to market as a site for a potential retail center. When Clark sought to relocate the Concrete Strategies operation to the long-vacant 16-acre Goodfellow site, he was turned down by the city’s economic development agency, the St. Louis Development Corp., which said it preferred to keep the site open for possible retail uses.
Clayco had intended to buy the Goodfellow site and build a new facility estimated to cost $30 million, Clark said. Concrete Strategies' current Broadway site is owned by Vitale Properties of Pacific.
SLDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It's led by Neal Richardson, who was appointed by incumbent Mayor Tishaura Jones, who is running for re-election. Since the rift over the north St. Louis site, Clark has come out in favor of Alderwoman Cara Spencer's bid for mayor.
Development costs for the 16-acre Hazelwood property were not disclosed, but Clark said in a statement that the company was moving to Hazelwood on a “multi-year” lease.

Clayco will add 400 jobs as it moves to a $50 million newly renovated headquarters next to the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis at 1 Express Way in Berkeley, also in North County. The move, which will consolidate five separate Clayco locations, will double the company’s footprint in St. Louis, representatives have said.
Ranked as one of the top 10 national contractors by Engineering News-Record, Concrete Strategies is best known for its expertise in cast in place concrete, structural concrete, tilt-up, flatwork, pre-cast erection and various concrete restoration and coatings/waterproofing services for commercial projects, the company said in a news release.
With more than 1,000 office and field workers nationwide, the company generates $500 million in revenue annually, according to the release.
By moving to Hazelwood, the operational hub will have 191,000 square feet, with 20,000 square feet of that dedicated to office space. That will include a modern craft jobs training and innovation center for field testing cutting-edge concrete products for performance and sustainability, according to the release. The previous facility in north St. Louis had 100,000 square feet under roof, Moriarity said.
In the next three years, Concrete Strategies plans to add at least 100 to 150 jobs, Clark said on Twitter. He said that the headquarters for Clayco will remain in Chicago, where it moved in 2013, but that Clayco employs about 3,000 in Missouri and 500 in Illinois.

Suburban Sprawl wrote: ↑

Jun 07, 2024

Six fortune 500 companies and 11 further fortune 1000 companies in the latest rankings and thats still a little bit down on some prior years. KC meanwhile only has one in the f500 at a lofty 414 and another four in the 1000. Our corporate climate still hangs pretty well despite all the sh*t that the negative sh*t about the region, especially compared to some loud neighbors. 

STLEnginerd wrote:Plus its just the publicly held companies on this list right?  Enterprise holdings is private but its huge.  Although Graybar is on there...  so maybe i am missing something.

whitherSTL wrote:Congrats to Memphis. Can STL ever get involved in something big or new? Memphis?

https://www.npr.org/2024/09/11/nx-s1-50 ... -pollution