It wasn't so long ago that the 600 acres (243 hectares) of University Place/NorthPark were being gobbled up by eminent domain proceedings, as the City of St. Louis began purchasing property in the 1980s in order to fulfill noise abatement goals mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration. One early vision saw the property being part of Lambert's expansion plans, but the airport's $1.1- billion growth plan, currently unrolling beneath its arrivals and departures, went in other directions.
   So much the better for the NorthPark partners. Now the property is slated to see 4 million sq. ft. (371,600 sq. m.) of light industrial and warehouse space, 680,000 sq. ft. (63,172 sq. m.) of office space, 400,000 sq. ft. (37,160 sq. m.) of lab and retail space, 433,000 sq. ft. (40,226 sq. m.) of service center and office- light industrial space and 20,000 sq. ft. (1,858 sq. m.) of retail- restaurant space. The partners are tossing in $38 million in development funding, while public sources are contributing up to $29 million.
   The Express Scripts decision amounts to an early- bird feather in the cap for all parties. Express Scripts says it now will be the highest- ranking Fortune 500 company (No. 151) with its corporate headquarters on a university campus. The company and UMSL intend to capitalize on each other's information technology and health economy research resources, and the location is certainly a recruiting advantage for Express Scripts and a professional development edge for UMSL. The international business program at UMSL was recently named the 16th best by U.S. News and World Report, and more than 75 percent of UMSL graduates remain in St. Louis to live and work.
   In his annual State of the University address, delivered on the same day as the project announcement, UMSL Chancellor Thomas F. George had a lot more than the start of a new academic year to smile about:
   "Express Scripts is the type of company we had in mind when we began developing UMSL's business, technology and research park," George said. "It's a growing company whose operational needs, vision and values meld with UMSL's academic strengths and diverse connections to the region … Companies such as Express Scripts that locate in the business park will bring internship and job opportunities to our students, and potential research opportunities to our faculty. The communities, including the Normandy School District, will benefit from increased property tax income and other taxes generated by business- park employees as they begin to buy homes in nearby neighborhoods and patronize local retailers and restaurants."
   Key to the Missouri offer was the promise from each of the developers not to get involved in competing bids for Express Scripts. This was especially relevant in the case of TriStar Business Communities, whose best- known project is its giant Gateway Commerce Park in southwestern Illinois.
   But the partners go well beyond developers.
   "Strong support from Gov. Matt Blunt, the Missouri Department of Economic Development, the Missouri General Assembly, University of Missouri President Elson Floyd, UMSL Chancellor Thomas F. George, St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley, and the St. Louis County Economic Council was critical to making this unique and exciting collaboration between Express Scripts and UMSL possible," said Paz. Dooley, for one, has called the project "the greatest reinvestment project in the history of St. Louis County."
   Other partnering work is being accomplished among the municipalities of Berkeley, Ferguson and Kinloch, formerly squabbling cities which will see some form of infrastructure improvement related to the park, in which they all have a stake.
   Contacted in June, Steve Littlejohn, spokesman for Express Scripts, said, "We're on schedule, girders are up and construction is moving along nicely. And in a parallel effort, we're engaged with the University of Missouri- St. Louis on a number of potential collaboration projects."
   Littlejohn took pains to point out that "it's not like we're opening in a place we've never been before. We're talking about taking a corporate headquarters, with people already working in it, and moving it eight or nine miles down the road."
   It's a phenomenon St. Louis can get used to, as all those little moves add up to substantial cumulative corporate investment.