AB Mauri Readies For Cortex

Leading Yeast & Baking Ingredient Company Will Remain in Missouri, Relocating from Chesterfield to St. Louis

ST. LOUIS (May 29, 2014): AB Mauri, a global company that supplies the food and baking industries with high-quality yeast and bakery ingredients, is moving its North America headquarters into the @4240 building in St. Louis’ historic Central West End. @4240 is a $73 million state-of-the-art, sustainable, multi-tenant laboratory and research facility developed by Baltimore-based Wexford Science & Technology and based in the Cortex Innovation Community.

Nearly 60 full-time employees will move from their current location off Timberlake Manor Parkway in Chesterfield to the Cortex area beginning in November. AB Mauri will occupy almost 23,000-square feet of space – featuring a state-of-the-art regional technical center that is double the size of its current location along with contemporary offices.

“We are very excited to move our North America headquarters into the City of St. Louis,” said Mark Prendergast, president of AB Mauri North America. “AB Mauri is a technology-focused company that will benefit by working side-by-side with other innovative startups and established companies in the Cortex community.”

AB Mauri specializes in world-class baking technology that provides commercial bakeries – including industrial and artisan business – with high-quality brands such as Fleischmann’s® Yeast products and AB Mauri® Bakery Ingredients.

“The addition of AB Mauri’s North America headquarters to the @4240 building and Cortex shows us that ‘importance of place’ is becoming a key factor when CEOs are making location decisions,” said Dennis Lower, president of the Cortex Innovation Community. “This move is not about space, it’s about thought leaders rubbing shoulders with entrepreneurs and seeing what new innovations result. This reinforces our goal of building an environment where traditional companies and emerging businesses alike interact with one another, and we welcome AB Mauri.”

Other recently announced residents in the @4240 building include Ventures – Boeing’s Defense, Space & Security unit’s startup discovery group; digital agency Manifest Digital’s Always On Content Studio; Husch Blackwell; Washington University and the Cambridge Innovation Center’s CIC-STL.

“AB Mauri’s decision to locate their headquarters in @4240 continues the concentration of innovative companies and resources coming together at Cortex,” said Josh Parker, director of development for Wexford. “It’s ideal to have a global company of the stature of AB Mauri cement their presence in St. Louis, drawn in partly by the sense of place we are creating within Cortex and @4240. We can’t wait to see what additional collaborations come out of their industry-leading regional technical center.”

“This move allows us the opportunity to increase both the scale and functionality of our AB Mauri regional technical center and baking laboratory, so we can continue to research and develop better yeast and baking ingredient solutions. This will help elevate our customers’ baked goods in the marketplace,” added Prendergast. “With the signing of this long-term lease, we are looking forward to meeting our new neighbors and calling St. Louis our home for many years.”

About AB Mauri North America

AB Mauri North America – a division of AB Mauri – is a relationship-oriented, technology-driven company that supplies the food and baking industries with best-in-class yeast and bakery ingredients. Commercial bakers, in need of a total resource for quality ingredients, process optimization, and custom formula solutions, rely on AB Mauri. More information is available at www.abmna.com.

The company sells yeast under the Fleischmann’s® Yeast brand name. An extensive line of quality bakery ingredients – including dough improvers, leaveners, tablets, mold inhibitors, enzyme blends, vinegars, acidulants, syrups, malts and specialty products – is marketed under the AB Mauri® Bakery Ingredients brand name.

About Cortex

Five premier educational, research and healthcare institutions joined forces in 2002 to create the Cortex Innovation Community. Cortex is transforming an aging, 200-acre, midtown industrial district into a vibrant, 24/7, mixed-use neighborhood that will serve as the epicenter of innovation and entrepreneurship in the St. Louis region. To date, Cortex has completed or committed development of $500 million and 1.6 million square feet, approximately 25% of its targeted buildout.

About Wexford Science & Technology

Wexford Science & Technology, LLC, a subsidiary of BioMed Realty, is a real estate investment and development company specializing in facilities for for-profit and not-for-profit institutions, especially universities, university-related research parks and healthcare systems. Wexford brings a unique approach of collaborating with clients to build knowledge communities, which are vibrant, mixed-use, amenity-rich environments that foster innovation. Wexford is building eight other Knowledge Communities across the U.S: the Bio-Research & Development Growth (BRDG) Park at the Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis; Hershey Center for Applied Research in Hershey, PA; Innovation Research Park at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA; University City Science Center in Philadelphia; University of Maryland BioPark in Baltimore; University of Miami Life Science & Technology Park in Miami; University Technology Park at IIT in Chicago; and Wake Forest Biotech Place at the Wake Forest Innovative Quarter in Winston-Salem, NC.