Premier
office space is popping up around St. Charles County.
By Kevin Kipp
Grandpa got it downtown. Your daddy could go to Clayton for
it. You might have yours out Highway 40.
Now—if you’re willing to forgo the enchantment of waiting for
an elevator in the parking garage and again in the lobby—you
can find Class A office space popping up in St. Charles County.
Asked if the notion of Class A office space in St. Charles County
differs from traditional notions, one wag says, “Yes. Traditionally,
we haven’t had it.”
That would be Rick Hill, principal at the Hill Partnership Architects
in Wentzville. The criteria for Class A office space, he proposed,
is “location, amenities, finish and price.”
Why price?
“Because you have to be able to get the price to pay for the
other three,” he quips.
Hill should know, having just completed the renovation of a
vintage 1898, 4,000-square-foot building on Main Street in Wentzville.
Features run the gamut from “elaborate oak detailing [$40,000
worth!] and patterned inlaid carpeting” to “super fiber availability”
(because of proximity to Verizon facilities) and “multiple pairs
of networking and phone cabling to accommodate any level of
technological requirements.”
Darn good thing, too, considering the voracious appetite for
financial data that his new tenant, Eisner Securities Inc.,
likely has. They moved their offices from Clayton the day we
interviewed Hill. “Eisner will have cable, a T-1 line and they’re
putting a satellite dish on the roof right now.
“We’ve started to redefine the market here,” he continues. “Space
that commands 21, 22 bucks a square foot hasn’t been available.
Now it’s coming on the market, and filling.”
(He mentions three new buildings in Lake St. Louis: two built
by dentist Dr. Greg Lluerding, and another occupied by attorneys
Dalton Coyne & Cundiff and Prudential Realty.)
David Leezer, director of business development for St. Charles
County, thinks the emergence of a market for premier office
space in St. Charles County is “in large measure because of
the credibility established by organizations like MasterCard
in Winghaven and MCI across from the Missouri Research Park.
And west of MCI there’s Enterprise Leasing’s data center.”
He mentioned others along Highway 40, adding, “Decision-makers
see that and say, ‘If it’s good enough for them to invest, then
let’s take a look.’
“We’re just at the beginning of a growth phase for the Class
A office market throughout St. Charles County,” Leezer believes.
“It’s such a hot market that Colliers Turley Martin Tucker has
opened an office in the city of St. Charles.”
Keith Schneider is vice president and managing broker of that
new office. He says, “Class A means different things to different
people in different locations.”
The cost is different, too. He estimates Class A in Clayton
runs $24 to $28 per square foot. In St. Charles County, $19
to $22.
Schneider hews to a more detailed definition of Class A than
Hill: “the highest quality finish, multi-story, extensive glass
outline, structure parking, proximity to amenities and executive
housing.”
Besides Highway 40 properties, he says Class A can be had at
the O’Fallon Corporate Center or Fountain Lakes Commerce Center,
MB Properties’ 475-acre development, and-oh-by-the-way one of
Schneider’s clients.
So far, buildings in the young development at Highway 370 and
Elm Street are Class A office-warehouse and distribution. Soon
it’ll have its “first 100 percent office space.”
He calls the 55,000-square-foot building “Class A-minus.”
Minus?
“Minus because it’s single-story, tilt-up with surface parking,”
he says. “But it clearly deserves the ‘A’ rating because of
its access to 370, the airport and some of the most desirable
executive housing in the metropolitan area.”
Space will go for $19.50 per square foot, he says.
Ron Nelson, executive vice president of Greater Missouri Builders,
echoes Hill: “Developers are finding users who are willing to
pay for Class A.”
The company is putting up a 77,000-square-foot, six-sided, four-story,
$20.50 per square foot Class A building at 1551 Wall Street
in St. Charles.
Growing businesses that rely heavily on getting and keeping
quality people are demanding Class A because good employees
are demanding a quality work environment,” Nelson says.
“ Class A offers “proximity to good highways and the airport,
and being part of the technology corridor is important,” he
says. “We’re just seeing the start of a market for Class A.
I think wireless Internet access will prove important. People
also like to have access to services, like restaurants, day
care centers, health clubs.”
Kent Evans, is project director for 1551. “It’s strongly positioned,
12 minutes from the airport, right on Restaurant Row in St.
Charles. There are five restaurants in walking distance, plus
we’re right at the back door into St. Charles County, when Page
Avenue comes in; it’ll be four or five minutes depending on
how you hit the traffic lights and only a few minutes from downtown
St. Charles.”
The lobby will feature marble and granite floors and walls,
and “tons of conduits for all the fiber optics or T-3 or T-1
tenants could need.”
Asked to explain why Class A space is surfacing in St. Charles
County, Evans chuckles, “Where none exists there must be a market!”
Impeccable ratiocination aside, as St. Charles County evolves
from a bedroom community, he continues, “it was just a matter
of time. We’ve seen more executive housing stock, emerging retail,
and better and better Class B office space. Eventually Class
A will be the top of the food chain, even though it may be a
while before it’s at the scale of Clayton.”
Kevin Kipp runs Bubble Communications, a creative services
and community relations firm in St. Charles.
