CLAYTON, MO—Office users in the past few years have expanded quite a bit throughout much of the St. Louis metro area, and landlords in suburban Clayton, a submarket which rivals the St. Louis CBD in size, have gotten their share of new tenants.
KBS Real Estate Investment Trust II, a non-traded real estate investment trust based in Newport Beach, CA, recently signed 62,729 total square feet in leases at its Pierre Laclede Center. The Saint Louis Club, a private business and dining club, renewed a 47,572 square-foot lease, while St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, the economic development organization that serves the metro area, signed a new lease of 15,190 square feet.
The center consists of two buildings with a total of 579,846 rentable square feet on 5.1-acres on the northwest corner of the intersection between Hanley Rd. and Forsyth Blvd.
“Our members and guests have always appreciated our central Clayton location and our spectacular 360° views of St. Louis,” says Terry Pflager, president of the Saint Louis Club. “This lease helps us combine the best of our past with exciting plans for future generations. In 2017, we plan to complete a major renovation on the 14th floor — creating a casual, tech-friendly, social space that will offer exciting new amenities, along with the fine dining, remarkable wine cellar and the elegant meeting spaces that have always made us famous.”
In addition to the club's private dining space, the center's other features include a conference center, parking garage, car wash, two full-service banks, a café and a fitness center. The surrounding area also offers tenants access to lodging, popular restaurants such as Capital Grille and a short ten-mile drive to Airport Township.
“We remain confident in the amenities at and around Pierre Laclede Center as the property maintains its reputation as an iconic asset in Clayton,” says Brett Merz, senior vice president at KBS and asset manager for the property.
The overall vacancy rate for class A properties in Clayton has sunk to just 4.8%, according to Colliers International. That's the lowest of any major submarket and a drop of about 300 bps since mid-2016. Furthermore, its $27.08 rental rate is the second highest in the region, bested only by suburban Chesterfield.
Marc Palmer and Artie Kerckhoff of CBRE represented KBS REIT II in the deals.
Other KBS-affiliated companies have purchased assets in the town. In 2015, KBS Real Estate Investment Trust III bought 101 S. Hanley, a 346,451-square-foot tower in suburban Clayton, from Duke Realty for $62.25 million.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
