Cities across the Midwest are reinventing themselves as hubs for new technology. And in the heart of the Midwest, St. Louis is no different.
A good example is the renovation taking place now at the historic Heritage Building in St. Louis’ Central West End neighborhood.
Wexford Science & Technology, LLC, a private real estate development and investment company, is turning this buiding into a multi-tenant laboratory and research facility. The renovated building, which will now be named @4240, will wrap up by late 2013.
The goal is to attract about 457 full-time research and technology jobs to this $73 million building. Washington University will serve as an anchor tenant at the building, leasing 69,000 square feet for its offices of technology management and research administration. Additional lab and research space is available in the building for future tenants.
“@4240 will provide St. Louis with multi-tenant lab and research space that rivals any other center of research in the United States,” said Dan Cramer, executive vice president of Wexford Science & Technology, in a written statement.
HOK is the architect for the project.
@4240 is the first project of the second phase of St. Louis’ CORTEX District. The district is the result of five educational and research institutions that joined forces in 2004 to create a hub for life sciences research and development.
The 183,000-square-foot @4240 building will be renovated to serve research, biotech, technology and science tenants. The building’s entrance will face the new CORTEX Commons, a park-like open space that will become, planners hope, the hub for the CORTEX District.
Those officials participating in the new building hope that it will boost St. Louis’ efforts to attract technology companies to the city.
“A great CORTEX research district is critical to our institution, the city of St. Louis and the entire region,” said Hank Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration at Washington University in St. Louis. “Our great hope is that our presence in this new space will lead to a major increase in start-up business activity and a more rapid movement of innovations developed by our faculty and students into the marketplace. This will fuel the region’s economy and improve our overall quality of life.”
