CLAYTON — Real estate development firm CRG is buying the headquarters of global shoe company Caleres and aims to transform it into a $500 million development, with condos, townhouses, a boutique hotel and office space for the footwear company.
CRG and Caleres have hired a consultant to seek local and state tax breaks and Clayton officials appear to support the move, in the hopes of holding on to one of their biggest employers.
“We think it will be great to keep (Caleres) in our corporate community,†said Mayor Michelle Harris. “The new development will bring a lot of vitality to the area.â€
The project will include other office tenants as well as a Life Time luxury fitness facility, said Jeff Tegethoff, operating partner at CRG, the local development arm of design-build company Clayco.
“This is about keeping Caleres in ºüÀêÊÓƵ County and the city of Clayton,†Tegethoff said. “To do that, we want to make sure we create an unrivaled experience that’s more than just an office building.â€
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Caleres, formerly known as Brown Shoe Co., put its 9-acre campus at Maryland Avenue and Topton Way up for sale last year. It said then that high demand for Clayton real estate and favorable office real estate pricing for tenants prompted it to explore a sale. The company had struggled financially during the coronavirus pandemic, furloughing or laying off almost 400 local employees.
But since then, Caleres has reported record profits and has seemingly put those struggles behind it.
The company, which has roots in the region dating from the 1870s, is one of Clayton’s biggest employers, with 588 workers, according to the city’s latest financial report.
“Subject to the outcome of the state and local incentive efforts and ongoing lease negotiations, a portion of the proposed office space would be the home to our new headquarters — keeping our associates and our global headquarters in Clayton,†Ken Hannah, Caleres’ senior vice president and CFO, said in a statement.
CRG plans to ask the city of Clayton to grant it special taxing districts, like transportation development and community improvement districts, as well as a sales tax reprieve on construction materials. Caleres, meanwhile, is seeking Missouri Works incentives, which provides states tax credits in exchange for new jobs created, said Doug Rasmussen, president of ºüÀêÊÓƵ-based consultancy firm Steadfast City that is advising CRG and Caleres on the project.
Clayton’s Board of Aldermen is expected to vote Tuesday on a contract with Gilmore Bell, a noted public finance law firm, to have the firm advise the city on the incentives. CRG would foot the $25,000 bill, Rasmussen said.
Mayor Harris said the city reviews incentives on a case-by-case basis. She said she could not comment on the specifics of the contract with Gilmore Bell but called the arrangement a very common practice and said she had confidence in the law firm.
Rasmussen said CRG and Caleres will spend the next several months on zoning and the incentives, with construction potentially starting this summer. The first phase of the project could open at the end of 2024.
Clayco is expected to build the project, and its architecture firm, Lamar Johnson Collaborative, to design it.
Tripp Hardin, Mike Hanrahan and Matt Stephens of commercial real estate firm Cushman and Wakefield are representing Caleres in its deal with CRG. Sansone Group is representing Life Time.