Centene Campus University Research Park

[KJHburg]

Since a million square campus will be built with the Centene office in the University Research Park it probably deserves its own thread.  As this is a massive construction project any word on who the developer will be?  We can chronicle the construction of this campus here and any other company news.  

Here is their existing office in Charlotte at 10101 David Taylor Drive and photos 2/3  their land for their campus is across the street.  (see photos attached)  Last photo are a new townhome community approved recently and started by Mattamay Homes.  These townhomes are within walking distance of the Centene Campus just across the street. 

site plan of Mattamay Townhomes as approved in rezoning Centene's new campus is directly to the south across Gov. Hunt Road.   

http://ww.charmeck.org/Planning/Rezoning/2017/127-141/2017-133 approved site plan.pdf

another story on campus

https://rebusinessonline.com/healthcare-firm-centene-to-develop-1b-east-coast-headquarters-in-charlotte/

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by KJHburg

[KJHburg]

the view from St Louis about the Centene expansion in Charlotte and why quality of life and attractiveness to potential employees is important.   

https://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/david-nicklaus/nicklaus-centene-s-charlotte-expansion-should-be-a-wake-up-call-for-st-louis/article_4254b98b-fdef-59a8-9a96-901d02bf6faa.html

[NYCLT]

Any idea where they will house employees while this is being built?

[KJHburg]

1 hour ago, NYCLT said:

Any idea where they will house employees while this is being built?

they have space in that 10101 David Taylor Building but they may need some temporary space on top of that for sure.  There is some space in the university area at the old Allstate building on McCullough even thought 2/3 of that building was taken by Principal Financial. 

[Blue_Devil]

Curiously, especially for everyone saying they won’t build towers in the future, they just finished their first tower in St. Louis and are starting a second one . . .

[thenewkage95]

I know it probably isn’t even close, but with a 1 million square foot addition, where does that put University Research Park in relation to RTP?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TheOneRJ]

33 minutes ago, thenewkage95 said:

I know it probably isn’t even close, but with a 1 million square foot addition, where does that put University Research Park in relation to RTP?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I believe the RTP is around 7,000 acres with about 23 million square feet of office while URP is around 2,200 acres with over 10 million square feet of office (as of 2008, those are the only figures I could find). 

[Guest]

56 minutes ago, TheOneRJ said:

I believe the RTP is around 7,000 acres with about 23 million square feet of office while URP is around 2,200 acres with over 10 million square feet of office (as of 2008, those are the only figures I could find). 

https://universitycitypartners.org/UCPMagazines/University-City-By-the-Numbers/#?page=2

This bad presentation says 11M sq feet

[Yeahdoug]

Wish this was in uptown, $1bil could have built a very nice tower. Still happy to have them. I could def see this as a stepping stone to moving out of St. Louis completely. Their employees are going to love it here. 

[Guest]

Just now, Yeahdoug said:

Wish this was in uptown, $1bil could have built a very nice tower. Still happy to have them. I could def see this as a stepping stone to moving out of St. Louis completely. Their employees are going to love it here. 

probably only 1/2-1/3 the square footage as can be built in University City though.

[Yeahdoug]

40 minutes ago, Tyree Ricardo said:

probably only 1/2-1/3 the square footage as can be built in University City though.

Can’t you build something like the Truist tower for a bil? Isn’t that well over a million sq ft? 

[Guest]

55 minutes ago, Yeahdoug said:

Can’t you build something like the Truist tower for a bil? Isn’t that well over a million sq ft? 

for sure, but it'll just literally be on that footprint, vs a sprawling campus with tons of nature, and they apparently wanted a very secure campus.

Edited July 6, 2020 by Guest

[RANYC]

2 hours ago, Yeahdoug said:

Wish this was in uptown, $1bil could have built a very nice tower. Still happy to have them. I could def see this as a stepping stone to moving out of St. Louis completely. Their employees are going to love it here. 

I, too, was disappointed that such a high-profile project wasn't headed for the "heartbeat" of the Region, but after ruminating a bit, I realize that this probably comes down to data strategy and data governance. 

Lowe's is putting its tech center in a high-rise in South End, but they'll largely focus on analytics on customer shopping habits and product demand.  My understanding is that much of the data that Lowe's will use will be stored in a 3rd party public cloud provider.  As a result, Lowe's isn't housing massive data centers on its "tech" campus for the benefit of its next-gen tech initiatives.

Centene is healthcare administration, and likely has custody of vast troves of healthcare data on individuals.  Due to the highly sensitive nature of the data it will use for its tech and analytics initiatives, and given the strict regulations on that data, Centene will need massive "on-premise" data centers, and as opposed to having Microsoft or Amazon or Google Public Cloud Services manage its data centers, it will manage its data infrastructure on  its own.  Can't trust storage and management of such sensitive personal data that it collects to 3rd party cloud solutions.

If Centene were to bring more of its front office to Charlotte, or relocate its corporate HQ, I could see an uptown location to accommodate that.

 

Edited July 6, 2020 by RANYC

[joenc]

6 minutes ago, RANYC said:

I, too, was disappointed that such a high-profile project wasn't headed for the "heartbeat" of the Region, but after ruminating a bit, I realize that this probably comes down to data strategy and data governance. 

Lowe's is putting its tech center in a high-rise in South End, but they'll largely focus on analytics on customer shopping habits and product demand.  My understanding is that much of the data that Lowe's will use will be stored in a 3rd party public cloud provider.  As a result, Lowe's isn't housing massive data centers on its "tech" campus for the benefit of its next-gen tech initiatives.

Centene is healthcare administration, and likely has custody of vast troves of healthcare data on individuals.  Due to the highly sensitive nature of the data it will use for its tech and analytics initiatives, and given the strict regulations on that data, Centene will need massive "on-premise" data centers, and as opposed to having Microsoft or Amazon or Google Public Cloud Services manage its data centers, it will manage its data infrastructure on  its own.  Can't trust storage and management of such sensitive personal data that it collects to 3rd party cloud solutions.

If Centene were to bring more of its front office to Charlotte, or relocate its corporate HQ, I could see an uptown location to accommodate that.

 

Those renderings are not data centers. There's no reason to have the data center next door to your office either even in the scenario you're describing.

Also the public clouds meet compliance requirements for the healthcare industry.

[KJHburg]

Sure you could put a 1 Million sq ft building uptown but the cost associated with it are much more than 6-7 story buildings as proposed here.  Some companies are never go to be in high rise for they don't want to pay for it. Uptown is great for financial companies including banks and major HQs and others who do business with them.   Someone more knowledgeable than me on this can speak to the construction costs of a 6-7 story office building vs. 20-30 story building uptown.  Land costs is just one of the many ways it is more expensive.  If the HQ eventually moves here they may be interested in a separate office in a more urban setting.  I am happy for the win for this region 3200 jobs with many more possible. 

[jjwilli]

43 minutes ago, joenc said:

Those renderings are not data centers. There's no reason to have the data center next door to your office either even in the scenario you're describing.

The site plan released shows a data center tucked into the property away from the main campus area. Might not be a reason for it but they are including one.

  

[Hushpuppy321]

On 7/4/2020 at 1:23 PM, TheOneRJ said:

I believe the RTP is around 7,000 acres with about 23 million square feet of office while URP is around 2,200 acres with over 10 million square feet of office (as of 2008, those are the only figures I could find). 

So RTP has nearly the same amount of total office space as Uptown Charlotte?  Isn’t Uptown like 25/26 Million SF?

Edited July 6, 2020 by Hushpuppy321

[Yeahdoug]

2 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Sure you could put a 1 Million sq ft building uptown but the cost associated with it are much more than 6-7 story buildings as proposed here.  Some companies are never go to be in high rise for they don't want to pay for it. Uptown is great for financial companies including banks and major HQs and others who do business with them.   Someone more knowledgeable than me on this can speak to the construction costs of a 6-7 story office building vs. 20-30 story building uptown.  Land costs is just one of the many ways it is more expensive.  If the HQ eventually moves here they may be interested in a separate office in a more urban setting.  I am happy for the win for this region 3200 jobs with many more possible. 

I’m just being skyline greedy. I saw a billion dollars being thrown out for the project cost and my mind goes to something special like DEC1. 

[KJHburg]

Here is another economic development magazine talking about this expansion and believe it is the biggest anywhere in the US in the last few weeks.

https://businessfacilities.com/2020/07/centene-corporation-to-create-3000-jobs-at-new-charlotte-nc-hq/

[TheOneRJ]

3 hours ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

So RTP has nearly the same amount of total office space as Uptown Charlotte?  Isn’t Uptown like 25/26 Million SF?

Uptown has 28 million with about 5 million more planned/under construction. 

[Hushpuppy321]

8 hours ago, TheOneRJ said:

Uptown has 28 million with about 5 million more planned/under construction. 

Wow so that’s like all of RTP, Downtown Raleigh & Downtown Durham combined.  Impressive.

Edited July 7, 2020 by Hushpuppy321

[RANYC]

On 7/6/2020 at 11:58 AM, joenc said:

Those renderings are not data centers. There's no reason to have the data center next door to your office either even in the scenario you're describing.

Also the public clouds meet compliance requirements for the healthcare industry.

"The company will develop a campus measuring at least 1 million square feet across multiple buildings in University City, said Centene CEO Michael Neidorff at a virtual news conference on Wednesday. The project will also include a daycare and early childhood development facility, employee training center and a sizable data center." - Charlotte Business Journal, "Centene's expansion in Charlotte to top $1 billion, 3,200 jobs,"July 1, 2020.

Wasn't basing my on-prem data center assertions on any renderings, as those tend to be inaccurate or highly dynamic.  Was basing it on a bizjournals report indicating that the Centene investment in Charlotte includes a sizable data center component.  I don't purport to know Centene's public cloud strategy, but was merely conjecturing as to why their tech innovation center in Charlotte included an on-prem data center, whereas Lowe's did not, and in fact, it has been reported that Lowe's has engaged Google to help it build a channel-less and digital client experience.

Edited July 7, 2020 by RANYC

[RANYC]

https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/health-care-tenant-steps-huge-lic-vacancy-left-amazon

Apparently, the owner of the building that Amazon HQ2 was to occupy in NYC was in negotiations with Centene last year to fill half of the space abandoned by Amazon.  

[KJHburg]

does anyone know who the developer will be for the Centene campus?  There are a couple national developers that could do it like KDC which has done State Farm campus in Atlanta  but locally Childress Klein has developed buildings for single tenant corporate tenants as they did TIAA in the URP and the Sealed Air campus.    TIAA is about 800K sq ft.  I am sure they will chose someone who get such a massive job done. But who? 

Or maybe bring these guys in from St Louis

https://claycorp.com/project/centene-centre/

Edited July 8, 2020 by KJHburg

[KJHburg]

Centene will break ground on their office campus in August after closing on their land in the University Research Park.  First phase 770,000 sq ft building and 2400 space parking garage.  Claycorp is the general contractor.  This would be 2nd largest building underway in Charlotte after the Duke Metro tower uptown.  Close on 80 acres and have another 50 under contract! 

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2020/07/16/centene-campus-to-break-ground-aug-1.html