On Friday, July 25th, a handful of Blayzer team members got a special treat: a field trip out to Midtown and the CORTEX Innovation District’s @4240 building. Brad, Mike, Brandon, Julie C. and Seneca joined host Travis Sheridan, founding Executive Director at the Venture Café Foundation, for a V.I.P. tour of the $73M renovation project that has the St. Louis tech and science startup scenes sizzling with excitement. We were blown away by what we saw.
First and foremost, we couldn’t help but be rocked by the sheer scale of the CORTEX project. Not only is the @4240 building itself quite impressive, but it is situated at the heart of a much larger, 240-acre development area spanning from Forest Park Avenue to I-64.
According to Sheridan, @4240’s mission is two-fold — to provide an “effortless place to do business” and to “create natural collaborations.” These goals are brought to life through a host of attractive features and innovative amenities, including:
- 183,000 square feet of office or lab space built to tenant specifications
- Wet lab and office co-working spaces
- Fully-functional private offices
- Office suites with common space and up to 2 private offices
- Open-floor collaboration spaces
- Standing communications/phone “booths”
- More fully-equipped conference rooms and open meeting areas than you can shake a stick at
- Presentation theater
- One-stop concierge center
- On-site mail room
- 1.5G fiber internet
- On-site restaurant (tenant to be revealed soon)
- The Venture Café, a kitchen and dining area that pulls double duty as an event space
- CORTEX Commons, an outdoor green space with custom sculptures, WiFi coverage, and charging ports built into fixtures
- Flexible, growth-oriented leasing arrangements
Construction is moving along quickly, and space at @4240 is filling up fast. Some key tenants have already started moving in, and many more are already signed up to join them later this Fall. To learn how your company can join the likes of Washington University’s Office of Technology Management, the Cambridge Innovation Center, Boeing’s Ventures discovery unit, Husch Blackwell, the Washington University School of Medicine, and yeast producer AB Mauri, contact @4240 for leasing information.
Stay tuned to the Blayzer Blog for more exciting updates about our relationship with CORTEX, @4240, Travis Sheridan, and the Venture Café Foundation!