Cortex Innovation Community

The Crescent Building, a 3-story, 55,000 ft² concrete frame building with exterior brick masonry walls, is the latest renovation project within the Cortex Innovation Community, the vibrant 200-acre innovation hub and technology district integrated into St. Louis’ historic Central West End and Forest Park Southeast neighborhoods. 

The renovated building provides 88,000 ft² of “loft-like” shell and core facilities to accommodate multiple Biotech startup companies “graduating’ from incubator spaces at the Center for Emerging Technologies (CET) and other locations. Core building systems are flexible enough to support and adapt to changing occupancies and varying lab-to-office ratios over time. The building also accommodates shared facilities such as event spaces, meeting rooms, and spaces housing shared research equipment. Additionally, sustainability design strategies and elements were incorporated in the renovation of the shell and core. 

Built in the 1930s by the St. Louis Post Dispatch and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Owner intends to preserve the historic character and elements of the Crescent Building and to utilize State and Federal Historic Tax Credits as a critical component of the project’s financing.