Two construction firms have been hired to complete some of the final steps of a federal spying agency’s new $1.7 billion office campus in St. Louis.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or NGA, hired Pugsley-Byrne and DJM-Merlo for its 97-acre office campus under construction on Cass Avenue. Pugsley-Byrne is set to construct a parking facility for the visitor center, and DJM-Merlo will install landscaping and irrigation systems. The contracts are valued at a combined $18.2 million.
The NGA uses remote sensing and other geographic information systems software to spy on foreign countries’ military capabilities and land use. The agency is attached to the Department of Defense.
The federal agency’s office project comes as the broader St. Louis office market struggles along with markets across the country.
The weak office market fueled by drop-offs in occupancy has resulted in some office properties losing significant value. For instance, the former One AT&T Center, a 44-story office tower in St. Louis, sold this week for $3.6 million, less than 2% of its $205 million sales price in 2006. One AT&T Center is the second-largest vacant office building in the United States.
NGA’s new St. Louis office will cover 712,000 square feet on a site across the street from the former Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex. The facility is designed to house 3,150 employees and will replace NGA's existing offices in an 1840s military arsenal in south St. Louis. The agency expects to occupy its new facility in 2025.
The NGA’s main headquarters is located on the Fort Belvoir Army Base in Springfield, Virginia. It also maintains an office in Arnold, Missouri.
For the Record
McCarthy Building Cos. and Hitt Contracting are design-build contractors for the St. Louis campus. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is managing the construction project. Black & Veatch and Gensler are architects of record.