ST. LOUIS, MO – Following leases to Yurbuds, Pedal The Cause and Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, the newly opened Cupples 9 building at 900 Spruce Street in Downtown St. Louis is 99% occupied reports developer The Koman Group. St. Louis-based Koman orchestrated the $30 million rebirth of the 119-year-old, seven-story structure and its 147,000 square feet of office and retail space. The new tenants are:
- Yurbuds, a developer and marketer of earphone sets for athletes. Founded in 2009, Yurbuds was recently ranked the #1 start-up company in St. Louis by the Information Technology Entrepreneur Network. Yurbuds, which comes to Cupples from the Center for Emerging Technologies, a St. Louis business incubator, employs approximately 40 people in 9,000 square feet of space. "We were looking for a home that matched the energy and personality of our team,” said Seth Burgett, president and CEO of Yurbuds. “With daily runs around the Arch, trips to the gym, an epic view of Busch Stadium and Happy Hours at the Flying Saucer, our team sees Cupples 9 as the perfect place for our active lifestyle."
- Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, a Dallas, Texas-based eatery that offers an encyclopedic assortment of hand-crafted beers, has opened its first St. Louis establishment in 6,600 square feet of street level space one block west of Busch Stadium. Flying Saucer owns and operates 16 micro-breweries in Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina.
- Pedal The Cause, a charity founded in 2009 by two-time lymphoma survivor and president of The Koman Group, Bill Koman. The group organizes an annual community-wide cycling fundraising challenge in which 1,850 cyclists participated in 2012, raising more than $2 million to fund cancer research and clinical translational care. Formerly located in Creve Coeur, Mo., the charity’s staff relocated to 1,800 square feet at Cupples to enhance logistical efficiency in managing the race.
The new tenants join anchor tenant Osborn & Barr, the largest agricultural marketing communications agency in North America. Osborn & Barr partnered with Koman in the redevelopment and occupies 66,000 square feet. Other tenants include Asynchrony Solutions, Inc., an information technology/software developer, with 44,000 square feet and Mackey Mitchell Architects with 12,500 square feet.
Built in 1894 and listed on the National Park Service Historic Registry, Cupples 9 is part of one of the first urban master planned manufacturing and warehouse districts in the United States. The Koman building is the eighth original Cupples Station structure to be redeveloped.
Koman’s Josh Udelhofen is listing agent for 2,000 square feet of office/retail space that remains on the first floor.
The project was financed by Enterprise Bank; Great Southern Bank; The Private Bank; Central Bank of Kansas City; US Bank Community Development Corporation; Enhanced Historic Credit Partners; and Lisart Capital.
Founded in 1984, The Koman Group has developed more than $1 billion in new projects in Missouri and Illinois. Signature properties include: the CityPlace mixed-use development with eight buildings totaling more than 1.2 million square feet in Creve Coeur, Mo.; the 17-story, 485,000-square-foot Centene Plaza office building in Clayton, Mo.; the 24-story, 206-unit Clayton on the Park residential building, also in Clayton; and the 147,000-square-foot Cupples 9 mixed-use building, a newly completed historic renovation in Downtown St. Louis. The Koman Group is also acting as owner’s representative for Laclede Gas as the St. Louis-based utility evaluates options for a prospective headquarters relocation. All told, The Koman Group and its affiliates own and manage more than 1.8 million square feet of commercial and residential space.