The next phase of Cortex development is beginning to take shape with a sizable office project at the corner of Duncan and Sarah.

Today, Ventas Inc. announced an 8-story, $115 Million, 320,000SF office building for Cortex. The move comes as Cortex has continuously seen new and rehabbed buildings fill up pretty quickly, so demand is there to move forward on another new construction building in the district. The same success will most likely happen to 4210 Duncan despite the new building being fairly large in terms of square footage.

Planning for the new structure hasn’t been kept secret that much in terms of what the usages will be and where the next buildings would be located. For this specific building, a soil testing crew was out on site a month ago for 4210 Duncan. The next big unveiling should be behind Cortex 1, which is where a residential building is planned.

4210 Duncan will be built on the surface parking lot that borders 4220 Duncan and the new Cortex garage. For Duncan, significant street level changes will be made as the final remnant of a former factory is removed. That remnant is the large concrete wall that keeps the site level. Retail will be included to add to the district as time goes on and the area builds out to become a true neighborhood. For the main building, it will the tallest in the neighborhood (for now at least) and add a striking design that will be visible from Interstate 64, Forest Park Avenue, and Vandeventer.

4210 Duncan will be located close to Sarah Street, which we all know will undergo massive changes to improve the streetscape and pedestrian connection to the Grove. To the South of here, Koman is planning their Cortex K development. That project will bring over 100,000SF of office to Cortex as well. Construction on that should be later on in the summer or early fall. If you head West on Duncan, BJC is planning a new building at Newstead. That will reach around 10 floors in height.

Ventas says, in their press release, that they hope to have 4210 Duncan completed by late 2021. According to a HUDZ document for the City of St. Louis, a start date is specified for sometime in September 2019. The architecture firm working on the project is HOK, which designed @4240, 4220 Duncan and the Cortex parking garage. Another interesting tidbit for the project is that no TIF will be utilized to build 4210 Duncan. This is a move that is different than other recent St. Louis City office projects and is a welcome change.

Finally, the HUDZ document specifies that the Cortex garage will be expanded for this project and a potential 3rd phase of the garage, or new office building, will be located along Sarah Street. A rendering of that (added 6/25/19) is below.

Additional Renderings added on 6/24/19. These are from Colliers International's, the group marketing the building, website.