GEOINT + FINTECH: PLACEMAKING IN DOWNTOWN NORTH
Written by Dick Fleming | Originally Published in Geospatial World
Over the past two decades, St. Louis business and civic leaders have worked hard to shed the Gateway City’s previous ‘rust belt’ image — replacing declining traditional manufacturing industries with high tech sectors such as plant and life sciences, information technologies, financial services, advanced manufacturing, and logistics and distribution.
In this more recent reconfiguration of the economic development landscape and ecosystem, physical platforms such as ‘Innovation Districts’ have been created to provide entrepreneurs with opportunities to establish and grow enterprises in these new sectors. For example, the Danforth Plant and Life Science Center and its companion BRDG District in suburban St. Louis, and the CORTEX District west of downtown, have been cited by Brookings Institution as best practices examples of districts for growing the plant and life sciences sectors.
Now, in conjunction with the current development of the USD 1.75 billion, 100-acre, one-million sq ft new western headquarters of the U.S. Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) on the edge of downtown St. Louis — along with the eventual move of more than 1,000 Square and Cash App employees to a newly-renovated historic building, and the high tech adaptive use and renovation of one of St. Louis’ former railroad stations, The Globe Building, into a destination for geospatial and other tech firms, both located downtown, just blocks away from NGA’s new HQ — is a first of its kind Innovation District located in downtown St. Louis.
‘The Cube Conference Room’ in the unclassified GEOINT space adjacent to the 75,000 square foot multi-tenant SCIF at The Globe Building.
A Premier Technology Hub
The Downtown North Urban Insight District in St. Louis is at the intersection of GEOINT, FinTech and entrepreneurship at-large. It is a premier technology hub — committed to empowering and enriching lives, solving problems, and keeping America safe.
Downtown North is a live/work/play community home to entrepreneurs and industry leaders in geospatial intelligence and financial technology. The Downtown North Insight District is anchored by two major entities, The Globe Building and the adaptively renovated former St. Louis Post-Dispatch HQ Building which is becoming the new location for 1,000+ employees of Square and Cash App. The Globe Building and Square and Cash App are joined by the T-Rex technology incubator for start-up firms as the third anchor in the Downtown North Insight District.
As St. Louis aspires to become a global geospatial intelligence hub with the USD 1.75 billion new western headquarters of the NGA — just several blocks away in downtown St. Louis — this unique Innovation District has been taking shape. Square and Cash App and The Globe Building are the two closest properties to the new NGA campus with available hi-tech office and multi-tenant Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) space.
The building has new interior atriums which connect interior floors. Suspended glass sculpture by Third Degree Glass Factory.
‘High Tech Castle’ — The Art Deco Globe Building
The 720,000 sq ft Globe Building is a distinctive Art Deco building which once served as a St. Louis railroad station. The high tech adaptive reuse of the Globe Building by owner Steven Stone has become a prime location for a growing number of tech, GEOINT and GEOINT-related firms (such as MAXAR, T-Kartor, Ball Aerospace, the HQ for the Americas of Geospatial World); five major data centers in 145,000 sq ft of space, three direct feeds from the power company and 12 fiber providers; the new headquarters, advanced manufacturing, R&D, and global distribution center for Stereotaxis, a global leader in robotic surgery technology); and a recently-announced 75,000 sq ft SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) — the largest multi-tenant SCIF outside of the Washington, D.C. area.
In partnership with developer John Berglund, Managing Director and Co-Founder of the Starwood Group, Square and Cash App have recently completed a stunning renovation of the 226,000 sq ft facility, with space to ultimately house up to 1,400 employees.
The new Square and Cash App Building described in St. Louis Magazine as a “cutting-edge workplace equipped to help the company expand its local workforce, recruit and retain top local talent, and fuel growth strategies.” The building was the former headquarters of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper.
T-REX is a non-profit innovation and entrepreneurial development center for start-up tech entrepreneurs. The center includes co-working space for entrepreneurs, a technology incubator, and an entrepreneurial resource center. It is home to over 400 founders, tech developers and designers, mentors, and educators. In the past year, T-REX has become a local hub for geospatial entrepreneurs, academic researchers, and federal employees of NGA and NGA’s Moonshot Labs.
The Downtown North Insight District unites developers, creators, influencers, and policy makers by bringing assets to the needs in corporate and commercial real estate, urban infrastructure, work-life balance, community engagement, and public art and culture.
The T-REX technology start-up incubator
Scifing for Growth
The Westway Services Group is a pioneer in the field of developing commercial Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF-as-a-Service, which has changed the way small companies conduct business with the Department of Defense, government agencies, and the U.S. military. Geospatial World Magazine, December 2021
The Conference Center at The Globe Building
Charting a New Route
Today, Downtown North is charting a new north for St. Louis.
The District hosts industry leaders in geospatial intelligence, financial technology, and entrepreneur incubation. Founders are working together to collect, analyze, and distribute insights in support of national security, developing easy tools that empower and enrich people to thrive and participate in a vital economy. By hosting, recruiting, and nurturing companies that advance technological development from start-up to grownup, they encourage creative thinking through urban design.
View of the former St. Louis Post-Dispatch Press Room with 20’ ceilings with Tucker Blvd. to the Right.
Companies in the District attract, employ, and retain local talent that is committed to the economic and cultural development of St. Louis. The national media have begun to take notice of St. Louis as a ‘start-up ecosystem of the future’ with recent headlines and comments, such as:
Several years ago, Fit Small Business ranked St. Louis #2 for “Best Cities for Entrepreneurs”, behind only Seattle, and ahead of Denver, Austin, Nashville, and Boston, in the ranking.
It further notes that, at 85.3 percent, St. Louis had the “highest business survivability rating in the nation.’
The article points out that St. Louis is the second-best city for entrepreneurs thanks to its aforementioned high business survivability, lower-than-average tax rate, and very low cost of living.
It concludes: “While this may seem surprising to aspiring start-up owners who equate bigger cities like San Francisco with entrepreneurship, St. Louis” affordability and undersaturation make it the ideal proving ground for new businesses.’
Lending Tree points out that “40% of new ventures in St. Louis are started by Millennials and 42% by GenXers.”
Writing in fivethirtyeight.com about St. Louis’ efforts to build its entrepreneurial momentum as a base for future growth, former Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Casselman’s article carried the headline, “St. Louis Is The New Startup Frontier.”
Fulfilling this immense potential is at the heart of the Downtown North Insight District’s vision — to inspire regional growth and positive social impact by connecting, attracting and retaining companies and their talent force.
