Enterprise Financial CDE said Wednesday it has provided $4.95 million in federal New Markets Tax Credit financing to the complex money package for Laclede Group's new headquarters downtown.
The financing is to Market 700 LLC, an affiliate of the Koman Group, which is leasing the building at 700 Market Street to Laclede.
Enterprise Financial CDE is an affiliate of Enterprise Bank & Trust, which provided senior real estate and historic tax credit bridge financing for the project.
Complicated, yes, but the end result will be the restoration and renovation of 700 Market, the only Philip Johnson-designed building in the area. Johnson designed the six-story building in the 1970s for General American Life Insurance Co.
Work on the restoration project began last year. Laclede is scheduled to move in this March, relocating its HQ from the Laclede Gas Building at 720 Olive Street.
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Mitch Baris, executive director of EFCDE, said in a statement that in cooperation with Enterprise Bank & Trust, the Laclede project got financing of more than $30 million.
鈥淲e are happy to be a part of their move into this extraordinary building,鈥 he said.
Garrick Hamilton, Koman Group's general counsel, said urban redevelopment, especially of historic assets, has many financial hurdles.
鈥淥nly through successful collaboration with Enterprise Bank and its NMTC investment and lending partners were we able to efficiently close such a complicated transaction,鈥 he said.
Tarlton Corp., a general contracting and construction management firm, is heading up the job.
The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1979, Johnson was the first winner of the Pritzker Prize, which is architecture鈥檚 equivalent of the Pulitzer. The building has been vacant since 2004.
