urbanSTL

^ Definitely agree that it is worth much less then the glory days of 2006 and no doubt they did a good job of getting their tax bill reduced. Have no doubt they will go the city for incentives to spruce up the space once the secure a tenant(s)

I just wonder if the owners are in a desperate state as such to offer discount basement prices to the first person who bites wants to lease or buy. Heck, it might less of loss to go without a tenant for a while if they can't get the terms they want rather than sell at a significantly low price betting that no new construction in downtown St. Louis will eventually mean tenants in the next 5 to 10 years. $250 million is a lot of money to bet on. As a real estate executive would you rather lose $5 million or so a year over the next 5 to 10 ($50 million dollar loss over 10 years) on one property or take a $125 million dollar hit now to your real estate portfolio if it sold at half price to WWT (giving up any future revenues in the future to boot)? Or is a lease that only pays the property tax really worth it when you can write the loss against properties that are doing much better? I just can't come up with a scenario where the owner has a plus to sell or give it away right now without an immediate need for cash in the bank because they are going insolvent.

Either way, I think it is a very frustrating position for the city to be in when an owner might be in a better position to sit on empty space rather than actively work a better deal for a local expanding tenant. Does anyone know if they are even actively marketing the space through a commercial agent? or in house? or would their lease deal with ATT forbid as such?

Getting back WWT. Obviously there is space to be had out there and you would think at a favorable rate. My assumption is WWT is in the driver seat, for space as well as incentives. Just a question of how much deal do they want to stay close to home or how much of a better deal to move down the road.

roger wyoming II wrote:As for WWT, do we know how much space they are looking for? I thought at first they were entertaining an entire HQ move but it seems they are only looking for additional space.... but even setting up a city office would be great.

200,000 sq ft

WWT has picked Westport Plaza for a $60M project.

If only

Geekwire - Expedia confirms Seattle move, will buy Amgen campus for $229M

http://www.geekwire.com/2015/expedia-co ... ttle-move/

Roger, since living out here in the Bay area for the last five years and reading the development stories I would say their is just as much truth of WWT at Westport able to having Silicon Valley feel as Silicon Valley itself. Silicon Valley for the most part is mostly large low rise office campuses unlike San Fran & Seattle where tech companies like Twitter, Square, Amazon have made decidedly different choice of its surroundings. They might be building mixed use dense housing in places like Menlo park and Redwood City next to Caltrains but most of Silicon Valley tech offices themselves are decidedly auto centric. Why buses are so huge out here.

All WWT has to do is add exclusive free bus service and free in campus perks, such as free lunch for its employees, in its new collaborative space. At that point, WWT employee probably couldn't tell the difference between their office and a typical Google Campus office. Question to be asked if Westport is indeed picked, will future employees live in CWE/Downtown/Clayton CBD or migrate west or will WWT try offer free transit services to employees? Will WWT push for the Daniel Boone metrolink extension? etc.

Its shame that Jack Dorsey embraced an urban core in San Fran instead of St. Louis for Square HQ (Railway Exchange building would have been a perfect fit for its employees and servers IMO) where it appears that WWT as a locally expanding tech company and one the areas largest tech companies has picked a Google/Facebook/Apple office park like campus. Embracing what is inside the building for a Silicon Feel. Imagine both Square and WWT downtown. That would be huge

dredger wrote:Its shame that Jack Dorsey embraced an urban core in San Fran instead of St. Louis for Square HQ (Railway Exchange building would have been a perfect fit for its employees and servers IMO) where it appears that WWT as a locally expanding tech company and one the areas largest tech companies has picked a Google/Facebook/Apple office park like campus. Embracing what is inside the building for a Silicon Feel. Imagine both Square and WWT downtown. That would be huge

What I don't get is why Twitter has an office in Detroit and not here.

^ Probably because Detroit Hustles Harder.

^^ I agree with you about the Silicon Valley feel... the difference between Apple in the Valley (and that donut thingy is just weird) and in urban Seattle is night and day. Just the thought that I-270/Westport will have that in any kind of scale. Its just a suburban office park... kind of like West County or Chesterfield Mall saying they're going for a Mall of America feel.

To be fair to Jack Dorsey, he had a board and investors who most likely backed a San Fran location over St. Louis. I don't believe the on going litigation with Wash U professor helped the matter and can't really speak to what it is fair or not fair in that situation. But maybe some day a company with the need to maintain its own cloud will see Railway Exchange as a viable location.

Geographical speaking, I'm not sure if an area defined by Westport on one end and Downtown on the other end is any bigger or smaller than Silicon Valley. I do think it would be cool and they would have been better in the long term to anchor a signature tower in CORTEX/CWE and or downtown location.

I would even take Clayton CBD development/new tower next to the metrolink Forsyth station as alternative county location over Westport and Maryland Heights. At least you can argue it is part of the growing central city/county corridor with fixed transit access to CORTEX and downtown tech, most of your major institutions, and transportation infrastructure such Lambert.

Sigh.

We shouldn't have expected anything else. Jim Kavanaugh stated they wanted to create a campus.

Sounds like county is still bullish on Westport Metrolink, they want this area to be cool so bad.

Also got the impression they wanted to stay within limits of Maryland Heights at the end of the day. I think it goes back to how much corporate location decisions are a reflection of personal preferences on the executive level. Question, WWT looking to consolidate its existing workforce and expected expansion into one new Westport location with room to grow or add another tower (thinking Centene or even Edward Jones up the road)? or will they keep their currently facility? As it was noted, they recently put a chunk of change into building out their existing location only a year or two ago.

I can see where the county will remain bullish on Danel Boone/metrolink extension as would be a big infusion of tax dollars back into the county. Similar to what now with Arch Grounds/GRG in the city and what you will get if NFL stadium as well as CVC improvements come together. I'm also pretty sure Dansforth is also pushing this hard as it will also have a stop for the plant science center. I wonder if at that point you just go ahead and some the current metrolink spine line past the airport to Earth City to RiverPort and then come back and tie into the future Dansforth line. Essentially one big West County loop

Concept renderings:
-A 6-story, nearly 210,000 sf building overlooking a reconfigured Westport Plaza lake
-A 5-level, 763-car parking garage with a walkway to the main building
-Will be visibly prominent from I-270.

That building would have looked great in the Cortex District. I Digress.......

Glass half full.... 1000 new jobs!

^ agree, but right now I believe CORTEX is the best chance for the region to have a major relocation outside of the region itself. Hopefully with a little hustle they will finally convince a Bay area and or a Boston/New York company that they can get the benefit of talent, quality of life at a fraction of the cost.

Nice looking building.