ST. LOUIS — The financial services firm formerly known as Square Inc. said Tuesday that it plans to trim nearly half of its downtown ºüÀêÊÓƵ office space as part of its expansion into hybrid work.
Block, the parent company of Square and mobile payment service Cash App, said it will in 2024 cut to just four floors of the former Post-Dispatch building, at 900 North Tucker Boulevard. The company signed a 15-year lease for eight floors in 2019.
The payment processing company said no jobs will be cut, and that it is hiring more workers in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ region, where it employs over 900 people.
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The decision follows similar moves Block has made across the country to reduce its office space as the company pivots to a “distributed work model†where employees are allowed to work from home or an office. The company declined to renew its lease for its San Francisco headquarters earlier this year and now says it no longer has a designated headquarters location.
In recent public filings, Block said the company has long been in support of a hybrid working model and that the coronavirus pandemic accelerated its plans for that model. The company instituted a mandatory work-from-home policy in March 2020 because of COVID-19 before easing restrictions beginning last year.
Companies locally and across the U.S. are rethinking what they need and how much they need post-COVID, creating intense competition among landlords that some call an “arms race†to woo tenants.
Most notably, health care giant Centene Corp. dumped most of its real estate footprint here — approximately 1 million square feet of office space — as the company pivoted to remote work. It also killed plans for a bigger Clayton campus and an East Coast headquarters in North Carolina.
Caleres is selling its Clayton headquarters to a developer that will remake the site into an office tower with retail and a commercial fitness center. The shoe company will have less space, but more amenities.
Agribusiness firm Bayer sold part of its Creve Coeur campus to another developer, which is planning to build hotels, retail, office space and townhomes and apartments on 95 acres there.
And the Polsinelli law firm said Tuesday it will leave its longtime downtown office for newer digs and better amenities at the new Centene office building in Clayton.
Block was founded by ºüÀêÊÓƵ natives Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey. McKelvey’s real estate firm, The StarWood Group, bought the Post-Dispatch Building in 2018. The Post-Dispatch moved to 901 North 10th Street in 2019.
The StarWood Group invested over $70 million in a renovation of the historic building and received $11.8 million in tax increment financing.
John Berglund, co-founder of The StarWood Group, said his firm will work with Block to ensure that the space it retains will work well for the company as it finishes out the remainder of the 15-year lease.
“It’s terrific space — as good as any across the country,†Berglund said. “Once we work through those details, we will start marketing the building for additional tenants, especially those in the fintech and geospatial industries.â€
The building is a major component of The StarWood Group’s plans for the new Downtown North that aims to capitalize on the growth of technology and geospatial companies in the downtown area that includes the Globe Building a few blocks south and the startup environment at the T-REX tech incubator on Washington Avenue.
“I always saw Downtown North as a 20-year commitment. COVID has caused us to get off to a slow start — but our trajectory is upward,†Berglund said.