Statements from Mayor Slay and Centene

Here are the official statements from both Mayor Slay, as well as Centene Corp. regarding their decision to pull out.

Statement of Mayor Francis Slay:

I am very disappointed that Centene and the Ballpark Village Partners could not come to an agreement. Meeting the needs, obligations, legal requirements, and goals of both parties was extremely difficult, complicated, and frustrating.

I want to thank Michael Neidorff for the opportunity to bring his company to Ballpark Village. He gave the City a chance because he understands how important Downtown is to the future of the region. I also believe Bill DeWitt, Jr. and Bill DeWitt, III tried very hard to work through the many complications that this deal presented.

I also want to thank my staff who worked many nights, weekends, and holidays to find a way to forge an agreement between these two parties.

I still support Ballpark Village. Because of changes in the composition of Ballpark Village proposed by the developer, a new redevelopment agreement will have to be negotiated. The project will only move forward on terms that are fair to the taxpayers.

Statement of Centene

Ballpark Village was unable to accommodate Centene’s plans for our world headquarters which we deeply regret and are disappointed to announce. Since our announcement in September 2007 , we have been working closely with representatives of Ballpark Village to finalize details for this project. Despite the best efforts of everyone involved, we could not bring our plans to fruition. We were committed and excited to move our headquarters downtown, as we recognize that Ballpark Village will help strengthen the region and we wanted to be part of this. We wish the Cardinals and the developers of Ballpark Village nothing but the best in their efforts to complete this important retail and mixed-use development.

We are currently resuming the evaluation of other potential options for the location of our corporate headquarters, both in and out of the region. We very much appreciate the commitment that leaders of this community, especially Mayor Francis Slay and his staff, have shown throughout this unusually long and public process. We remain hopeful that we can work together with local leaders to keep our growing company in the St. Louis region, if not downtown.

We will keep you updated as our search progresses.