CLAYTON, Mo. — The expansion of Centene in downtown Clayton has been a welcome addition to the city, and the area. But CEO Michael Neidorff has said the company may not continue with further expansion.
Plans included a third office tower, auditorium and more, just east of the Ritz-Carlton.
“He is very concerned about crime in the region and it's causing a lot of problems about recruiting high quality people to work at Centene,” Clayton Mayor Michelle Harris said.
But it's not Clayton that's the problem. It's overall crime in the region that Neidorff is objecting to.
“This is not a city problem. It's not a police problem. Crime is a regional problem and has developed over many, many decades,” St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson said.
Brandon Bosley is third ward alderman.
“It has to make sense around the border,” said Bosley. “A lot of things are going on in the city and the county and the reputation that proceeds us right now isn't the best that it can be, especially in terms of asking private entities to invest private dollars into the city or the county.”
University of Missouri-St. Louis Criminal Justice Professor Dr. Richard Rosenfeld says the metropolitan area, itself, does not rank particularly high in crime.
“The City of St. Louis, indeed, does,” said Rosenfeld. “But even in the city, homicide is heavily concentrated in really a small number of locations and concentrated in primarily a single population.”
Harris added, “Holding back on a development in Clayton is not so much just about Clayton. It's about the whole region.”