Centene's East Coast Headquarters in Charlotte

Want to talk about your favorite places besides Kansas City? Post any development news or questions about other cities here.
Post Reply
missingkc
Alameda Tower
Alameda Tower
Posts: 1297
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2002 7:16 pm
Location: Charlotte, NC

Centene's East Coast Headquarters in Charlotte

Post by missingkc »

Good news for St. Louis. This has been dumped. IMHO, it was just a matter of time before Charlotte would become the headquarters and St. Louis an outpost.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/ ... 78699.html
kboish
Hotel President
Hotel President
Posts: 3258
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:25 am
Location: West Plaza

Re: Centene's East Coast Headquarters in Charlotte

Post by kboish »

This article suggests otherwise.
The company already said it was no longer going to finish its $770 million headquarters expansion in Clayton that would have added nearly 1 million square feet of office space, hundreds of apartments or condos, retail shops, a 1,000-seat civic auditorium and a hotel near South Hanley Road and Forsyth Boulevard.

And Centene has vacated nearly its entire real estate footprint here — approximately 1 million square feet of office space — according to marketing materials shopping those properties for lease or sublease:

https://www.stltoday.com/business/local ... 7dc2e.html
missingkc
Alameda Tower
Alameda Tower
Posts: 1297
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2002 7:16 pm
Location: Charlotte, NC

Re: Centene's East Coast Headquarters in Charlotte

Post by missingkc »

Failure to carry through with the project in SL is, of course, bad news for the city. But I don't see how abandoning the Charlotte office project can be anything but good news for SL.
User avatar
normalthings
Mark Twain Tower
Mark Twain Tower
Posts: 8018
Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:52 pm

Re: Centene's East Coast Headquarters in Charlotte

Post by normalthings »

missingkc wrote: Sun Aug 21, 2022 9:33 am Failure to carry through with the project in SL is, of course, bad news for the city. But I don't see how abandoning the Charlotte office project can be anything but good news for SL.
I guess the “why” is what is bad for STL. If the firm is going almost entirely remote, there is little that prevents the executive office from moving to a low tax state. There is also the subleasing of all of their space.
kboish
Hotel President
Hotel President
Posts: 3258
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:25 am
Location: West Plaza

Re: Centene's East Coast Headquarters in Charlotte

Post by kboish »

The article said they arent just stopping their expansion in Charlotte, but also backed out of their Clayton expansion AND vacated over 1 million sq ft of office space in StL. So the Charlotte decision on its own is good, but the overall state of the company leading to that Charlotte decision is going to have ‘disastrous consequences’ for the StL office market. So id say thats not much of a win for StL.
shinatoo
Ambassador
Posts: 7393
Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2005 3:20 pm

Re: Centene's East Coast Headquarters in Charlotte

Post by shinatoo »

They are a Medicade/care manager and publicly stated they didn't want to be HQed in a state that was hostile to Medicade expansion.
earthling
Mark Twain Tower
Mark Twain Tower
Posts: 8519
Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2011 2:27 pm
Location: milky way, orion arm

Re: Centene's East Coast Headquarters in Charlotte

Post by earthling »

The level of local impact may depend on how they define 'remote' working policy. If remote means 'work from home within STL market' then potentially not as bad economically as truly 'work from anywhere' (Cerner leans more of the latter). Either way clearly not good for the office market - and they've reduced space nationally as well.

How many office jobs in STL? I found about 8K employed in MO but not clear how many are in STL area.
User avatar
normalthings
Mark Twain Tower
Mark Twain Tower
Posts: 8018
Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2015 9:52 pm

Re: Centene's East Coast Headquarters in Charlotte

Post by normalthings »

earthling wrote: Sun Aug 21, 2022 1:47 pm The level of local impact may depend on how they define 'remote' working policy. If remote means 'work from home within STL market' then potentially not as bad economically as truly 'work from anywhere' (Cerner leans more of the latter). Either way clearly not good for the office market - and they've reduced space nationally as well.

How many office jobs in STL? I found about 8K employed in MO but not clear how many are in STL area.
They are giving up ALL* space in STL. It’s fully remote for much of the staff.
Centennial had long complained about an inability to recruit to STL. I’m certain the result will be fewer not more local staff.


* not truly all but close to it
earthling
Mark Twain Tower
Mark Twain Tower
Posts: 8519
Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2011 2:27 pm
Location: milky way, orion arm

Re: Centene's East Coast Headquarters in Charlotte

Post by earthling »

Yeah after posting I looked at a bit more and found possibly biggest chunk of employees now in Tampa area and has most job postings. Dumping the NC plans might help STL some but between Tampa growth and STL offices mostly gone, STL could see gradual employee loss over years through attrition or local employees moving to work remotely.

STL really needs to figure out how to keep people, which is the core problem. All those good schools and many if not most don't stay.
Post Reply