urbanSTL

Right now Square has space in @4240 and Cortex I. I've heard they are the ones assuming the TechShop lease in the short-term but no real confirmation on this. I also know Cortex I lease negotiations with most other tenants are having shorter and shorter lease periods, but I'm not sure if this is related to Square or more because Biogenerator hopes to have a new home at the end of the decade. I know the Square leadership toured several spots in St. Louis and have repeatedly been to meet with City Foundry leaders, but also insist they want a continued presence in Cortex. The Metrolink is a huge priority to them as is housing. I can't imagine why they keep shopping for space if they aren't planning on more employees or maybe new divisions here.

^ I have no inside info but Square indeed is listed on permits for renovations on the old TechShop space. Also, it was reported last year that Square was looking at 80,000 sq. ft. of space although it was unclear if that was in addition to the approx. 20K sq. ft. it already had at @4240 or if that was total. Regardless, that would be a substantial increase either way and I don't think their current set-up plus the added square footage at the old TechShop space would get them to 80K so I could see that being temporary unless they go ahead with multiple locations throughout the district. (And hopefully they've even expanded their thinking on needed space since the last reporting... might as well make it an even 100K oh heck why not 1M sq. ft.!) .

Ideally this would go downtown imo but I'll take what we can get.

Thermo Fisher to make $50 million investment, add 80 jobs in St. Louis

"The expansion will allow Thermo Fisher to double its manufacturing capacity and have the second largest base of single-use bioproduction capacity at a contract development and manufacturing organization in the world."

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... e6d0d.html

^^ Agree, ideally it would be nice if Square would announce a major presence and do it by anchoring RX downtown.

The reality is Lawrence Group, Koman and Wexford have the ability to build out a new stand alone Square building that would be in the CORTEX footprint and offer good access to the new Boyle metrolink station without a lot of hassle as well as provide space built to spec. That alone gives Square three competing developers. The plus side is that that would free up additional space as CORTEX continues its build out. Not a bad outcome either way.

Heck, can see Square going with a new Cortex East tall slender office building that is along Vande, offers little bit of height, next to trestle walk/easy access to metrolink as depicted in the most recent Foundry phase II renderings. Also gives Square the option on the other two smaller officer buildings for future build out/expansion or maybe do what a lot of tech companies have done out west and secure more space now and sublease if not needed. But not sure if that would really work in St. Louis market say San Fran.

Not sure how legit these guys are, but anyone know where a fledging aerospace company can find a building on the near Northside around 4000 + sq. ft.?

Does Apple already have a presence in Pittsburgh and Boulder?

https://www.stltoday.com/business/local ... 9dd21.html

^ My take away. BIG TECH stays Coastal. Yes, Apple biggest area of expansion is just down the road in Austin and some jobs in Boulder & Colorado along with Amazon adding logistics center in Nasheville. I put Amazon in the Big Tech group with its huge Cloud business that will drive revenues way beyond a package at the door step.

But take a look at Big Tech job expansions in its truly a Coastal expansion by shear number whether its continued job expansion in San Fran/Silicon Valley, West Coast and East Coast. Start in San Fran/Silicon with Salesforce Tower & they are already looking at filling a second tower in downtown San Fran, Facebook & Apple huge campus expansions in the last 5 years and Google buying a big chunk of downtown San Jose for a 25,000 job urban campus, Amazon putting 50,000 people on East Coast and Apple's expansion of other offices in Seattle, Culver City (LA) and Miami, so on.

I really hope that Jack Dorsey, even though it won't be on scale of above, makes a much bigger move to St. Louis. I also think that Microsoft has been quiet in all this. Great location for them in my mind for even a bigger satellite campus is CORTEX/Wexford with the ability to break ground on two more buildings tomorrow.

The Mayor wrote: According to an article in the Denver Post the City of Denver actually refused to bid on the new Apple campus because Apple has stated most of these new jobs are technical support and customer service. Lower salary jobs then your average programmer or engineer

Cough. Square in Cortex. Cough.

^Exactly. St. Louis can't be picky about new jobs. We need all we can get.

Every time this topic comes up in conversation, I express my skepticism about a large influx of tech companies any time soon until the region can figure out how to attract talent. It is hard to hire skilled workers, and this keeps many companies from moving here despite the low cost factor. It is kind of a poverty trap, but that is the state we are in (in the sense that if those same companies moved here, the talent would probably follow, chicken and egg type of problem).

This is very evident in the latest edition of the Beige Book published by the St. Louis Fed: https://research.stlouisfed.org/publica ... beige-book

Employment has grown modestly since the previous reporting period. On net, 22 percent of business contacts surveyed reported that employment was higher or slightly higher than a year ago. Approximately half of the contacts expected their firm to increase employment over the next year, and the remaining contacts expected employment to remain unchanged. Contacts ranked an inability to find candidates with the required skills as the single greatest factor restraining hiring. The labor market was especially tight in the manufacturing, construction, and transportation sectors. One contact reported that manufacturing firms were turning down new orders due to worker shortages. Firms, particularly small businesses, continue to use non-wage benefits to attract employees. Staffing contacts in St. Louis reported that employees seem to have more leverage than employers for the first time in several years.

I worked in staffing for a few months this year before changing careers. At any given time I could count the amount of legit US citizen java developers job seeking in the STL area on my fingers. They have all the negotiating power and their phones ring off the hook. It's largely like this across the board for high level IT positions.

^That "US citizen" thing is kind of the kicker. There's a pretty good pipeline of local graduates in a variety of technical and business fields, but quite a lot of them go elsewhere since they're here on student visas and hiring immigrants is a big paperwork challenge and there's a significant upfront cost. I personally know a couple of business students who are leaving for Houston and San Francisco, a third who is probably leaving unless he can find a job here, and a fourth who might stay just because she's involved with a local guy. Glad of that last, as she's a good friend. But man, the talent we let slip through our fingers. People who genuinely like St. Louis and want to be here. I really think it would be worth our while to create a city agency for the sole purpose of helping city companies hire international students, to subsidize the process and ease it along. I very much suspect we'd more than make it up in payroll and property taxes further down the line.

^Only getting worse with the current administration. After all, the H-1B program under which those international graduates would receive work visas is one of the great political scapegoats of this day and age. I really doubt that it would be politically feasible to use public resources to subsidize immigrant employment, especially in a part of the country that is not particularly progressive.

Note: Of the four people listed two already have jobs, just not here. In San Francisco and Houston. Terrible as the current administration may be the visas are still there. People are getting jobs. The third person has a student job and isn't looking as she's maybe using a different route. The fourth person is such a good candidate I'm sure he will get a job, it's just a matter of time. Really really bright guy. Quite possibly top in his class. (Didn't check the records, but he's usually described thus.) If we want to compete with the fancy coastal places we really will have to do something. Local graduate students are an important resource and we really need to take better advantage of it and quit pumping them out to the coasts. If you frame this right I have to believe it would be possible to sell it. It could be a fairly small program: helping companies inside city limits cover the costs of recruiting students that are already here so that they stay and pay taxes. In decent, high paying jobs that would likely otherwise end up elsewhere. In places where organizations perhaps already do this kind of thing. As I hear it from local professors and HR professionals the problem is the local business culture, not the city government or electorate. The city needs to nudge local business out of the fifties. (Needed to long long ago.) . . . And that will probably require a subsidy. I can't believe this would be any more difficult to pass than TIF or property tax abatement. Should cost less and have a more immediate effect. I'd imagine such a thing would involve putting an immigration attorney or two on retainer. Fund it out of payroll taxes. Maybe offer a standard waiver period to help cover the filing fees and necessary collateral. Maybe a new kind of tax financed bond similar to TIF bonds. The theory behind this stuff is supposed to be that allocating tax revenue up front for construction projects will create a reliable stream later, right? This is very much the same idea. Could use a very similar mechanism. And unlike TIF it would be used to create good, permanent jobs and not just temporary construction and minimum wage retail. It will require selling, but . . . brand it. Sell it. We need more than what we've got. It's the kind of thing where one would really have to check the numbers, but I really bet they'll work out.

Not sure how this plays into Dorsey/Square's overall plan and if any impacts to St. Louis proposed expansion but they just signed onto a pretty significant sized lease in Oakland uptown neighborhood. Oakland Uptown Station has its own history if I got the building right. Old Sears store bought out be developers, sold to Uber, and then sold back again when Uber back pedaled on Oakland plans.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisc ... orsey.html

The lease is the first time since 2016 that a tenant has inked a deal for more than 100,000 square feet in Oakland.

Great interview in the Business Journal this week with Richard and his son Ross Chaifetz on their renewed commitment to the St. Louis startup scene.



By Nathan Rubbelke  – Reporter, St. Louis Business Journal
Jan 10, 2019, 11:58am EST

Richard Chaifetz has a passion for St. Louis, and now the Saint Louis University benefactor wants to expand his reach beyond the Midtown campus.
Chaifetz, who donated $12 million to help build SLU’s on-campus arena that dons his name, says he doesn’t “just give money to give money.” A passion about what he’s investing in is a requirement.
In 2018, Chaifetz and his wife, Jill, made a $15 million gift to SLU’s business school, which was renamed for him. Now, he’s looking to expand his local investment beyond SLU’s campus. His private investment firm, Chaifetz Group, intends to target St. Louis and the local startup ecosystem, starting with a pitch competition, to be held in partnership with St. Louis nonprofit Arch Grants, later this month. Chaifetz and his son, Ross, director of venture capital at Chaifetz Group, said the Chicago-based firm plans to open offices locally and increase its St. Louis investment across a wide range of opportunities.
“We welcome any entrepreneurs in St. Louis that feel they want to get involved with a group that’s very unique in terms of how they partner with people,” Richard Chaifetz said. “If they’re open to some degree of mentoring, plus the dollars, and are intellectually curious, they won’t find a better group to work with them and help their passions and their dreams.”
Chaifetz is founder, chairman and CEO of Chicago-based ComPsych Corp., which has become the world’s largest provider of employee assistance programs, behavioral health and wellness services. He is founder and chairman of Chaifetz Group.
The Business Journal sat down with Richard and Ross Chaifetz at Chaifetz Arena Sunday to discuss the family’s investment in St. Louis and the duo’s plan to expand its reach in the city. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity
You’ve spoken about Chaifetz Group increasing its investment in St. Louis. What opportunity do you see here?

Acquisition gives St. Louis-based Canopy an international reach:

https://www.stltoday.com/business/colum ... 26360.html

Bizjournals wrote up an article on Geotech but not sure if their is much to article or any tidbits of future development behind the paywall

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... s_headline