High Tech Expansion Means 100 Creve Coeur Jobs

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center went public with plans Monday for a $45 million expansion project that will increase the center's research footprint by nearly 80,000 square feet, KPLR-TV and other news outlets reported.

The expansion will mean at least 100 new jobs for scientists at the Creve Coeur facility located at the corner of Warson Road and Olive Boulevard. Ground will be broken for the new project early next year in hopes of being ready in 2015. Part of the funding for the project includes money for new greenhouses already under construction on the center's campus which will be ready later this year. The facility currently has 227 employees.

The Danforth Center has been involved in ongoing efforts to help Creve Coeur brand the area around the Center, which also includes the nearby Bio-Research & Development Growth or BRDG Park, and The Helix Center, St. Louis County's high tech incubator, as something of a bio-tech corridor.

The Danforth Center has also come out in formal support of at least one upscale apartment complex proposed nearby on Old Olive Street Road. Developers are attracted to the area and say the complexes would meet the housing needs of scientists looking to live near their workplace.