A week after
Brown Shoe Company of St. Louis announced that it was
relocating its largest division,
Famous Footwear Stores, to St. Louis (Clayton) from Madison, Wisconsin, Brown Shoe has announced that it is building a new headquarters in downtown Clayton, where it has been for over 50 years.
The new headquarters will be part of a planned $568-million project.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Brown Shoe anchors $568 million project
St. Louis Business Journal - by Lisa R. Brown
Brown Shoe Co. is expanding its headquarters in Clayton within a massive $568 million mixed-use development that will be one of the largest commercial developments under way in St. Louis County.
The state approved subsidies this week for Brown Shoe's planned new global headquarters, on the heels of the company's two-year search effort that could have meant the loss of one of St. Louis' oldest and largest public companies. The state's approval moves forward Brown Shoe's plans for a headquarters that will anchor a mixed-use project with 1.25 million square feet of office space, 300 condos, a hotel and 70,000 square feet of retail space on the 12.5 acres where the company is based at 8300 Maryland Ave.
The project's development team, including Clayco Chief Executive Bob Clark, traveled to Jefferson City this week to make the case for $6 million in tax credits for the project. Details for the mixed-use project were presented to the Missouri Development Finance Board on April 15. The board, led by Chairman and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, unanimously approved the tax credits. Additionally, Brown Shoe's request for $8 million in BUILD bonds for construction was approved.
"You could sit on this board for five years and not see a project as good as this," Kinder said.
Clark said the project is in the earliest design stages and still must go through a variety of zoning and other approvals. "We are winding our way through what is a very complex process," Clark said. "Brown Shoe's goal and objective is to bring their people together in one place."
Clayco, a developer and general contractor, and developer U.S. Equities Realty of Chicago, the 50-50 co-developers on the project, also will make a total cash contribution of $12 million to cover infrastructure costs related to the development. Clayco and U.S. Equities Realty plan to own the development site and will ultimately lease more than 300,000 square feet of office space back to Brown Shoe. David Hutkin, principal of St. Louis-based Hutkin Development Co., will have a minority ownership stake in the development and will oversee the retail portion...
...Plans call for Brown Shoe's employees to continue working out of the company's current 70-year-old headquarters building while construction is under way next door on a 15-story, 650,000-square-foot building. The campus, designed by St. Louis-based Forum Studios, will accommodate Brown Shoe's future growth needs and several hundred thousand square feet of additional office space will be available for lease by outside tenants.
Brown Shoe's building will be constructed on the site of a vacant office building at 8500 Maryland Ave. Brown Shoe bought two buildings, at 8400 and 8500 Maryland, from Sara Lee Corp. in January 2007 for $11.5 million. Construction on that building is expected to span two years and be completed in mid 2010. The company will keep the shoe sculpture that sits outside its current headquarters.
After the first phase is completed, Brown Shoe's existing 223,574-square-foot headquarters building and the 8400 Maryland building will be razed to make way for the second phase of development, which will include two office buildings totaling 600,000 square feet of office space, a hotel, a 2,000-car parking garage and as many as 300 condos. "It will be a landmark project," Clark said.
Brown Shoe also is negotiating with the Clayton School District to acquire several adjoining parcels that total about an acre on the campus of Clayton High School for the second phase. The development team has presented its request to the Clayton School District but has not yet received approval from its board...
...."Clayton is convenient, close to the airport, has great restaurants, and the work force is hard working and no nonsense," Sullivan said. "St. Louis has forward momentum. It added up as the right fit for Brown Shoe."
COPYRIGHT © 2008 ST. LOUIS BUSINESS JOURNAL
Source