urbanSTL

The investment will go towards providing free comprehensive training, education and industry-recognized certification opportunities. Cortex, the tech district in St. Louis' Central West End neighborhood, is partnering with the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the effort officials are calling Missouri's Tech First Initiative.

"There are many paths beyond a four-year degree from a college or university for preparing someone for a successful tech career," Sam Fiorello, president and CEO of Cortex, said in a statement.  The initiative is part of Cortex's new strategy to bolster the technology industry through new companies and jobs. Training is a key part of that plan, officials have said. Dan Mehan, president of the Missouri Chamber, said the tech industry is one of the state's "strongest opportunities" to grow its economy. 
“Key to that growth is smart investment to build a workforce that can support those industries," Mehan said in a statement. “The state will see a significant return on its investment in this program.”

Kieran Blanks will lead the new initiative for Cortex, according to a release. 

Vir Biotechnology Inc., a publicly traded firm seeking to develop treatments for infectious diseases, is closing its St. Louis office in the Cortex innovation district as part of a wider cost-cutting initiative.

San Francisco-based Vir (Nasdaq: VIR) said late Wednesday it will close its St. Louis research and development facility in Cortex in April 2024, along with its office in Portland, Oregon. It said it plans to continue operation from its locations in San Francisco and Switzerland. Vir said Wednesday it also will lay off about 12% of its workforce, accounting for 75 roles. Vir in 2022 started operating out of its 59,000-square-foot office and research lab located at 4240 Duncan Ave. in Cortex, investing $41 million to open the location. The site at its peak had 43 employees, a Vir spokeswoman said. Vir plans to shut down its St. Louis research and development site on April 15, 2024, and will “sunset” operations there as it nears the closure, with certain functions being shifted to its locations in San Francisco and Switzerland. The local office has focused on research and development, supporting pre-clinical testing to advance and commercialize Vir's drug pipeline. Vir subleases its Cortex office from Washington University, which previously occupied the space. Vir occupied a significant footprint in the 4240 Duncan building, which spans 202,551 square feet, according to marketing materials for the property.
Maggie Crane, Cortex's senior vice president of public affairs, said the innovation district was disappointed to hear Vir would be closing its office, but added Cortex believes a newly built-out, large research and development lab space will be an attractive component in drawing a future tenant. She said Vir has spoken highly about its experience operating from Cortex, which aids in recruiting another company to set up operations there.
It's unclear how many St. Louis-based employees will be laid off as part of the local closure. The spokesman said Vir “where possible and driven by business need” has offered some employees the ability to relocate or work remotely, but the company did not provide specific figures.

quincunx wrote: ↑

Jan 06, 2024

$26,663,529 building permit application submitted by 4140 ML LLC, appears to be a WashU for-profit to get HTCs, for rehab of the old Goodwill building at 4140 Forest Park Ave into retail.

Four years after announcing plans to locate itself in St. Louis, an agriculture nonprofit launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has established a permanent home locally.
Bill & Melinda Gates Agricultural Innovations, which operates as Gates Ag One, said Friday it has opened an office in the Cortex innovation district to serve as its headquarters. Gates Ag One, a nonprofit subsidiary of the Gates Foundation, seeks to advance agricultural research to help smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Gates Ag One had been operating out of temporary space in Cortex prior to moving into its new office recently. It has operated quietly, but actively, since its announcement in January 2020 that St. Louis would be its headquarters. It has since staffed up to have about 30 full-time employees, pursued several projects and awarded millions in funding. Gates Ag One announced its plans to be headquartered in St. Louis just weeks before the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, with CEO Joe Cornelius saying this week in an interview that the virus impacted establishing the nonprofit's early operations. Now settled in Cortex, Cornelius said Gates Ag One is moving quickly to solve economic, technological and climate challenges facing smallholder farmers. “We’re now ready to go and to scale up the organization,” Cornelius said.
Gates Ag One’s focus on smallholder farmers targets a large group globally that grapples with acute challenges, including poverty and climate change, while also being responsible for a significant component of the world’s food production, Cornelius said. A 2021 report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said five out of every six farms globally are smallholder farms, defined as being less than 2 hectares in size. Those farms account for 35% of global food production, per the report. In Africa, there are 33 million smallholder farms, managing 70% of food production on the continent, according to figures from Gates Ag One. Cornelius said smallholder farmers, many of whom are women, have “been left behind over the course of the last 100-plus years” in regards to the infrastructure and technological advances experienced by farmers in developed countries.

“It’s our primary objective to try to support their getting access to technologies so their economies can make the transition and be a more substantive contributor to many of the challenges we’re facing,” Cornelius said.

A recently opened office in the city’s Cortex district helps minority- and women-owned businesses qualify for road projects and other transportation jobs — including those spurred by the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill passed by Congress in 2021.
“There’s so much funding going on and we want to make sure that small businesses are able to bid and access those programs,” said Venus Martz, project director for the Small Business Transportation Resource Center, which opened in October on Sarah Street.
The office, funded by a $237,000 federal grant, offers business counseling and coaching, help navigating federal and other governmental rules regarding disadvantaged businesses and classes on bidding and obtaining bonding needed to get such work.

The office, which serves Missouri and four other states, is among 11 across the country funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Maura Downs, another official with the center, said the classes also teach small companies how to scale their businesses so they can take on larger projects, such as learning how to estimate costs to make sure they can make a profit. The office also helps firms obtain certification as women-owned enterprises to qualify for certain contracts.
“This is about circulating our dollars right here in our communities,” said U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis, who spoke at a ribbon-cutting event Thursday to publicize the office. She pointed out that the services offered are free of charge.


St. Louis County Councilwoman Shalonda Webb, D-North County, also spoke, as did local economic development officials.
Among business owners helped by the office has been Darryl Grant, who owns a small construction firm in Kansas City that specializes in industrial and commercial concrete work.

“These folks have actually put us in touch with companies that have work” for subcontractors, Grant said in a telephone interview.
Grant, who is Black, said the St. Louis-based office also has linked him to federal transportation officials regarding contracting possibilities, including with the Air Force.

JaneJacobsGhost wrote: ↑

May 02, 2024

The sidewalk closure is absurd. It needs to be much more difficult to obtain approval. As a recent example, the Ronald MacDonald house sidewalk closure was brutal.

Washington University has plans to transform a historic building into office and lab space in St. Louis' Cortex innovation district.

The private college wants to build a roughly 54,000-square-foot addition to the existing U-shaped, Goodwill Building on Forest Park Avenue and and Sarah Street. The project would span a little over 175,000 square feet in total, according to plans filed with the city of St. Louis.

Washington University bought the property, at 4140 Forest Park, in 2019 for $5.6 million from MERS Goodwill Industries. The university said at the time that it did not have a specific development planned. In March of this year, the city issued a $27 million building permit to an entity affiliated with the college, records show. In a statement Thursday, university spokeswoman Sue Killenberg McGinn said the project is in the "predevelopment process" and that the design and tenant recruitment is ongoing. "The mid-century Forest Park Avenue location will serve as a support hub to nurture both businesses and individuals as they advance and grow in the St. Louis innovation ecosystem," she said in a statement.

pattimagee wrote: ↑

May 02, 2024

quincunx wrote: ↑

Jan 06, 2024

$26,663,529 building permit application submitted by 4140 ML LLC, appears to be a WashU for-profit to get HTCs, for rehab of the old Goodwill building at 4140 Forest Park Ave into retail.