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Above: Above: An artist’s rendering of MasterCard headquarters
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This 1,100-acre mixed-use community in O’Fallon, Mo., is a place for the region’s knowledge economy to boom.
By Cheryl D. Walker
Perhaps the “city within a city” concept is not new, but creators of the WingHaven development in O’Fallon, Mo., have taken the idea to a new level to make a community for the next century. In fact, Paul McKee Jr., chairman of Paric and CEO of McEagle Development the developer of WingHaven, describes it as an innovative, mixed-use community and expects the area to be the western-most anchor of an emerging high-technology corridor in the St. Louis metropolitan region.
The more than $600 million, 1,100-acre development is located near the St. Charles County juncture of Highway 40 and Interstate 70 in O’Fallon. McEagle Development leads its partners and planning team in creating the WingHaven master plan, which envisions up to 1 million square feet of office space and 1.2 million square feet of high-tech research and laboratory space; 400,000 square feet of retail and commercial space; 2,000 homes and apartments; and entertainment and recreational facilities including retail and restaurants.
According to McKee, WingHaven’s residential community members are of a variety of family styles and occupational backgrounds from large single-family homes, to duplexes, condominiums and apartments. The area’s neighborhoods or “villages” will have parks, walking trails, access to roads and schools and shopping. Approximately 40 percent of the WingHaven development is indentured as green space forever.
Infrastructure planned for tunneling all cables and wiring for electrical, telecommunication including fiber-optic, and cable television. No wires or power lines are visible within the WingHaven community. Significant infrastructure; duct system on all right of ways for all types of cables including electrical as well as fiber optic for telecommunication, no poles inside entire area.
Services appealing to both business and residential members of the community are day-care center, health and fitness club, Nicklaus Designed golf course and clubhouse, nature trails, parks, restaurants, retail, full-service and extended-stay hotels and a conference center, perhaps as part of the hotel.
McKee says the emphasis is on being a “knowledge community” modeled after the needs of the emerging digital and knowledge economy. “The development team is forming a place to support the creation, transmission and application of knowledge,” McKee notes. “WingHaven’s corporate community members are not simply developing business sites, they want to uphold the elements that energize a knowledge-based community.”
Flocking to WingHaven
Novus International, the first corporate resident of the community, currently has had a small research farm in the WingHaven area for some time. Their new corporate neighbors include several familiar St. Louis area companies.
Ron Silverman, executive vice president of McEagle Development reports GLA International is the third major corporation to choose WingHaven as a headquarters site. In August MasterCard International began working on a $135 million, 520,000-square-foot Global Technology and Operations headquarters at the development. Nordyne, a manufacturer of residential heating and cooling systems moved into a 70,000-square-foot building, which includes office and research and development facilities in September.
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Above: MasterCard groundbreaking at WingHaven. From left: Dr. Ron Berrey, Wentzville School superintendent; Patrick Banger, O’Fallon city manager; Dick Fleming, RCGA; Paul McKee, McEagle Development; Norm Tice, director, MasterCard Global; Gov. Mel Carnahan; Jerry McElhatton, MasterCard GTO; Bob Selander, MasterCard president and CEO; Joe Ortwerth, St. Charles County Executive; and Chris Thom, MasterCard senior executive vice president.
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MasterCard Charges Ahead
Jerry McElhatton, president of MasterCard Global Technology Operations and senior executive vice president of MasterCard International, says his company evaluated 10 cities, including St. Louis, in which to expand.
“We wanted the synergy of a consolidated campus from our current four locations, which means we needed 40 to 50 acres with an easy commute for staff of about 1,750,” he adds. “Our employees live everywhere, but more than one-third are already in St. Charles County.”
McElhatton continues, “The City of St. Louis and State of Missouri, as well as key groups such as the RCGA courted us. They recognized the importance of keeping an $85 million payroll in the region.”
He agrees the mixed-use corporate and residential community with shared services, was appealing about WingHaven “None of us individually could support all that—the health center and fitness club, a hotel and conference facility, plus a day-care center—but together it makes sense,” McElhatton says. “In our evaluation, MasterCard looked at cost of land and ability to attract employees and these factors are important.”
Completion and move-in for the new MasterCard facility is expected the third or fourth quarter of 2001.
Nordyne Makes Move
The most recent corporate addition to WingHaven is Nordyne, which moved into their new building in September 1999 after about one year of construction.
Dick Ruth, vice president of human resources and administration for Nordyne, joins with other corporate occupants, saying the WingHaven concept of total community made sense.
“We needed to expand, and WingHaven met all our requirements, plus the cost of what we can lease space for here compared with other locations like Westport or the 40 corridor is very favorable,” Ruth says.
Nordyne, which manufactures heating and air conditioning equipment under several familiar names, also needed a facility appealing to employees and clients.
“Our clients include distributors and contractors and they like to see our manufacturing process,” Ruth says. “Our WingHaven campus has excellent facilities for meetings and recreation such as golf, which is a great combination for client meetings.”
For Nordyne’s 135 employees, WingHaven is close to home for many of them and Ruth says a few are considering moving into one of the development’s villages. He believes the entire O’Fallon area is great for families. In addition, Ruth reports Nordyne has had tremendous response to job openings from St. Charles County residents.
McEagle Development both developed and owns the building.
GLA Answers WingHaven Call
McEagle Development is also completing a new 75,000-square-foot $12 million valued building at WingHaven. GLA International, a telecommunications consulting company specializing in engineering and design services, will occupy 50,000 square feet at this new location. The company is scheduled to take occupancy in January. It employs about 150 in its St. Louis headquarters and has branch offices in Houston, Dallas, Portland, Maine, and Visalia, Calif.
“Our new headquarters building will enable us to more than double our local work force,” says Jim Moffit, president and CEO of GLA.
Moffit adds, “GLA selected WingHaven because of its unique environment, high-technology corridor location and proximity to current GLA work force. Nearly 70 percent of GLA’s employees live in St. Charles County.”
Residential Response Soars
The residential portion of WingHaven consists of 23 different villages with dwellings in a wide range of price points, which McKee believes creates a diverse community. The villages and the corporate facilities are developed between the natural areas holding the development to its indentures to protect 40 percent of the area with green spaces.
“The response has been absolutely unbelievable, says John Eilermann, president of McBride & Son, WingHaven’s residential and golf developer. “The four residential builders were confident WingHaven would be well received by the home-buying public, but none of us could ever have anticipated the incredible sales pace—250 homes were sold in just 90 days.”
He continues, “All through the country, the master-planned community is something people want. People want more than a house; they want a lifestyle, they want a city; they want more amenities. WingHaven satisfies this desire with a spectacular terrain, too.”
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Above: New corporate headquarters for GLA International located in WingHaven
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A Healthy Community
The WingHaven development team recognizes health as part of that lifestyle and has named BJC Health System the preferred medical and wellness provider for the community.
Stephanie Stemmler, spokesperson for BJC, says in preparation for developing comprehensive medical, health and fitness programming, BJC has held discussions with the major occupants of WingHaven and recently completed a six-month community needs assessment.
“BJC is committed to developing and managing a medically-based health improvement and wellness program in O’Fallon that will benefit employees and employers based in WingHaven as well as surrounding community residents,” Stemmler notes. “The services we plan to provide at WingHaven will complement medical services the system already provides at its BJC Health Center in O’Fallon, just five minutes and four miles from the development, and those services provided at Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital, which is only 15 minutes away from WingHaven.”
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“People want more than a house; they want a lifestyle, they want a city; they want more amenities.”
— John Eilermann, President of McBride & Son, WingHaven’s residential and golf developer.
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Public Private Partnership
The WingHaven development team represents a voluntary public/private partnership that includes the City of O’Fallon, McEagle Development, Trilogy Real Estate, McBride & Sons, Paric Corporation, Hellmuth Obata & Kassabaum (HOK) as overall project designer, and Loomis Boulton Pickett as land planner, as well as the three firms of Kuhlmann Design Group, Pickett Ray & Silver, and Volz Engineering, as project engineers.
McKee is particularly impressed with the public-private partnership that has developed between WingHaven and O’Fallon. He notes O’Fallon Mayor Paul Renaud was even willing to be involved in the first pitch to MasterCard.
“The city didn’t have to be a participant in this development, but because the city believed in us, it’s possible” McKee says.
To fulfill its pledges to O’Fallon, McKee believes WingHaven is one of the nation’s most extensively documented and planned communities.
Mayor Renaud says he always approaches business agreements or partnerships with caution and O’Fallon looked at WingHaven from two perspectives: running the city as a government and as a business.
“Jobs and retention are important for the region,” Renaud notes. “The high-tech job availability of established businesses within a diverse residential community is the appeal of WingHaven.”
And though WingHaven offers the region’s most varied housing in a concentrated area, Renaud agrees with developers and residents, this will be a long-term benefit.
“Fast-forward 10 years, and O’Fallon will have multiple opportunities,” says Renaud, noting the variety of business and housing that will appeal to renters, first-time buyers or retirees. As with any large project, Renaud reports some minor bumps, but credits WingHaven developers with solving them all so far.
“The biggest added benefit is the region coming together as a whole, both St. Louis and St. Charles counties,” Renaud adds.
McKee sees the entire package as a place for the area’s knowledge economy to boom. Even though the knowledge economy is not necessarily about “place,” it seems clear that companies and employees are not yet giving up the corporate office.
“We have discovered a special component to the ‘knowledge economy,’” McKee concludes. We are in the heart of a pool of knowledge workers who can do what they want where they want. Employers have to be able to attract these valuable knowledge workers.” Maintaining a viable community where work and home are close is still an appealing idea.
Cheryl Walker is a St. Louis-based free-lance writer.
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