AB Mauri, a global yeast producer and bakery ingredients maker, will move its North American office from Chesterfield to the Cortex research district.
Nearly 60 employees will relocate late this year to the Central West End. The company’s lease at 1350 Timberlake Manor Parkway expires at the end of 2014.
Mark Prendergast, president of AB Mauri North America, said Friday that getting a bigger and better facility in a historic building was key in the decision to relocate.
The company will put modern offices and a high-tech bakery in 23,000 square feet of space on the first floor of @4240, a former telephone factory remade as science labs and offices at 4240 Duncan Avenue. The three-story building within Cortex is on the National Register of Historic Places.
“It’s a nice blend of old and new,†Prendergast said.
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AB Mauri is the latest announced tenant at Cortex, a project of five educational, research and health care institutions to redevelop an old industrial area as a research park, residences and stores.
Ventures, the part of Boeing Co. that develops company businesses outside aerospace, said last month it will move 20 employees to @4240 from Boeing’s operation in Hazelwood.
Husch Blackwell announced in February that the law firm will open an intellectual property office in @4240 this summer. Also set to open at @4240 this summer is digital marketing agency Manifest Digital, which will relocate its St. Louis office from downtown.
Wexford Science & Technology, based in Baltimore, owns @4240 and previously lured Cambridge Innovation Center, a renowned tech incubator, as a major tenant.
Another Cortex project likely to get underway this year is an apartment building at Forest Park Avenue and Sarah Street. Cortex is seeking a developer for the site, which is just west of property where Ikea plans to begin construction this year of a store scheduled to open in 2015.
AB Mauri, a division of Associated British Foods, of Peterborough, England, supplies food and baking industries with yeast and bakery ingredients. Its brands include Fleischmann’s Yeast products and AB Mauri Bakery Ingredients.
Prendergast, a native of Sydney, Australia, said Cortex will provide the amenities and atmosphere his company wants.
“This is really about the form and function we need as a business,†he said.
The new space has the natural gas service necessary to fuel the large ovens AB Mauri needs to develop new bread and bakery products, he said. Proximity to other tech companies also is important.
“In my experience, innovative people benefit from being around other innovative people,†Prendergast said.
Dennis Lower, president of Cortex, said in a statement that AB Mauri’s move to the tech district shows “importance of place†is key when companies make location decisions.
AB Mauri signed a long-term lease about two weeks ago. Prendergast said he began eyeing Cortex shortly after he moved to St. Louis in 2012 and was living temporarily at the Chase Park Plaza. He noticed Cortex projects while bicycling through the neighborhood.
“I could see there were development plans in the works,†Prendergast said.
He said office employees at AB Mauri’s Cortex headquarters will have views of co-workers developing yeast and baking products in the glass-walled test kitchen, also known as the “technical center.â€
“You’ll be able to see our people in white coats, doing stuff,†he said.
