Essence leases Riverport space in $23 million deal - St. Louis Business Journal:

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In one of the largesg St. Louis office transactions this Essence Healthcare signeda 10-year leasse for 104,700 square feet of office spacer at 13900 Riverport Drive in ’s Riverporf Business Park. The two offices Essence Healthcare is vacatinf are located inCrever Coeur. The lease, which starts May 1, is worth an estimated $2.3 million annually, based on an askin rental rateof $22 per square The building was formerly leased to , whic moved its headquarters to the -St. Louiw campus in 2007. Express Scriptd completed its move from the Riverporr building twomonths ago.
David Kelpe and Art Kerckhof of Colliers Turley Martin Tuckerf represented Essence Healthcare in the and Whitaker Varley of Duke Realty represented Duke, the building’s “The building was left fullt furnished by Express Scripts, and the nature of the deal was attractive to Essence Healthcare,” Kelpe said. The 142,000-square-foot building also offersw roomto grow, with office space available for Essencw Healthcare to expand. Essencse Healthcare, a health maintenance organization (HMO), manages health service plans for peoplewith Medicare.
It was former as an offshoot of a physiciangroup , in 2004 and has grown to 25,00 Medicare beneficiaries in five Essence Healthcare is active in Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Washington. Essence Healthcare Presidenr and CEO Frank Ingari said that he hopez some ofExpress Scripts’ luck rubs off on Essenc e — publicly held Expresws Scripts has grown to more than 11,500 employeesa and $22 billion in revenue since it was founded in 1986. “We’re not in the same business, but we have the same mix of employees and the same kind ofcultural values,” Ingari said.
“Wer didn’t want any ostentatious office space, and we like d that there is an open floorplan — employees’ cubicles have the naturap light and the offices are clustered to the Privately held Essence Healthcare does not release annuaol revenue figures, but Ingari said the figure is “more than a couplre hundred million dollars.” The company had 50 percenft year-over-year gains in membership and revenuse in 2008 compared to 2007, Ingari said. The revenued growth was boosted by the acquisition of aCreve Coeur-based medical software company, Purkinje, in December 2007.
Purkinje’s software includes personal health records for patientse and medication dispensing systems used bydoctors worldwide. Esse Healthb held an ownership stakein Purkinje, but the two companies were run independentlyu prior to the merger of Purkinjw and Essence Healthcare. Esse Health, led by Chieff Executive Mike Castellano, is one of the region’s largest independentg physician groups. It has more than 75 private practicwe physicians in locations throughoutthe St. Louixs area and serves more than 140,000 patients. Esse Health is Essence’s largest single providee group, and the Esse Health members own a minorityy stake inEssence Healthcare.
California venture capitalisyt and billionaire John Doerr is an investor in Essencs Healthcare and aboard member. His St. Louisan Dr. Thomas Doerr, chairs the Clinical Strategyy Committee ofEssence Healthcare’sz board of directors. Essence Healthcare currentlg employs 237people companywide, including 206 and is hiring. “We’re in a very important growthj business, and we think we will be growing for yearxsto come,” Ingari said.