Monsanto Budgets Next Chesterfield Phase
Date Posted: December 30, 2014
Posted In: News, Projects,
From nextSTL: nextSTL has received further confirmation that Monsanto is preparing to make Chesterfield the center of the flowering $400 billion global biotechnology industry. In 2013 nextSTL broke news of the company’s $400 million expansion at its Chesterfield Village Research Center to augment a corporate commitment to sustainable agriculture. Then in April nextSTL was first to report on the second phase. It will dwarf the first in size and push the projected budget over $1 billion.
Multiple sources have told nextSTL that the world’s biggest seed company has charged expansion phase one project manager Alberici Constructors with budgeting the second phase, currently approximated to be $700 million. Contractors are already battling for position regarding the huge second phase that will shift focus to the undeveloped side of the 210 acre campus close by the Missouri River bluffs.
Phase one of the expansion is expected to be completed in 2017, and will add 590,000 square feet to the campus. Components of the first phase include construction of 250 labs, a conference center, a new parking garage, new office and research space, an expansive dining area, 36 greenhouses, and 13 Controlled Environment Agriculture rooms. The first phase will facilitate consolidation of Monsanto’s research and design team.
The company has stated it expects to add 675 jobs averaging approximately $85,000 annually throughout the area by 2017. The St. Louis region is already considered a hothouse for plant scientists. Aside from Monsanto, the Danforth Plant Science Center and Washington University in St. Louis are prominent area biotech players. Monsanto has 4,500 area employees including 1,000 working at the 1.5M square foot Chesterfield facility. Upon completion of the first phase employee capacity at the campus will bloom to 2,000.
Monsanto spent $150 million in 1984 when it first developed the Chesterfield campus. In 2000 the company merged with Pharmacia & Upjohn and changed its name to Pharmacia Corporation. The current company spun off from Pharmacia in 2002. The independent company focused solely on agriculture and leased space at the Chesterfield site from Pharmacia. The lease continued after Pfizer purchased Pharmacia in 2003. In 2009 Pfizer cut 600 area jobs and then sold the campus back to Monsanto for $430 million in 2010. The pharmaceutical giant still occupies space and conducts research at the Monsanto campus.
Sources say there is another possible factor for the enormity of the Chesterfield expansion. The company is contemplating shutting down its Creve Coeur campus and making the Chesterfield Village Research Center corporate headquarters. This move would take place in 2020, following completion of the second phase in Chesterfield. Monsanto’s commercial and corporate teams are currently based in Creve Coeur.