RockTenn Completes Smurfit-Stone Purchase

A guidepost for those driving past the CityPlace complex on Olive Boulevard has disappeared.

The lettering for came down from atop CityPlace 6 on Saturday, said a representative with the , which owns the complex. That came one day after the $3.5 billion sale of the containerboard company to Norcross, Georgia-based RockTenn, was completed.

On Friday, shareholders for both companies voted, and according to a RockTenn press release, 91 percent of the Smurfit-Stone shareholders who voted did so in favor of the sale.

"The acquisition of Smurfit-Stone brings us one step closer to making RockTenn the most respected and profitable integrated paperboard and packaging company in North America," RockTenn Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James A. Rubright said in the Friday release. "We welcome the former Smurfit-Stone customers to RockTenn and look forward to providing them with exceptional product quality and service."

Since the deal , it was clear that RockTenn's operations would continue to be based in Georgia, leaving employees at Smurfit-Stone's joint headquarters in Creve Coeur and Chicago unsure of the future.

The Koman Group representative said she did not have information about the company's continuing footprint at CityPlace or if it would be keeping any kind of a workforce there. Multiple messages left with Smurfit-Stone and RockTenn corporate officials locally and in Georgia have not been returned as of mid-day Tuesday.

City Administrator Mark Perkins said he reached out to Smurfit-Stone when the sale was first announced but has not heard back from the company since that time.