St. Louis election technology firm Knowink has relocated its headquarters, purchasing a 16,000-square-foot building in Creve Coeur that it now calls home.
Knowink moved into its new headquarters, at 460 N. Lindbergh Blvd., from 2111 Olive St. in St. Louis’ Downtown West neighborhood. CEO Scott Leiendecker said the new headquarters triples the company’s footprint.
Launched in 2011 by Leiendecker, a former elections official for the city of St. Louis, Knowink provides election technology used by over 1,700 voting authorities in 36 U.S. states. The company’s flagship product is Poll Pad, which allows election jurisdictions to replace the paper-based voter check-in and verification process with an electronic alternative. In addition to Poll Pad, Knowink has developed technology for monitoring elections, early voting, election reporting, managing election inventory equipment and printing election ballots.
Knowink’s relocation stemmed from the need to find a space to accommodate its growth, Leiendecker said. In recent years, the company has charted rapid expansion and was named St. Louis' fastest-growing private company in 2020 after growing revenue from $10.2 million in 2017 to $53.7 million in 2019. It declined to share a more recent revenue figure. It currently has 154 employees, with 60 based locally.
Knowink’s former headquarters on Olive Street is located across the street from CityPark, the new 22,500-seat stadium for Major League Soccer franchise St. Louis City SC. Leiendecker said the company considered expanding within Downtown West, but added that the new stadium presented challenges to finding adequate space and parking that it needed to grow there.
“While I love soccer and I love that the stadium is there — and who couldn’t be happier to see the outcome of this team — the building of the stadium is not conducive to a positive work environment,” he said.
In Creve Coeur, Leiendecker said, Knowink found a building that both fit its space needs and provided a location well suited to its employees’ commute to the office.
“We’ve got a lot of employees all over (the region). We were looking for something that had easy access. We felt that this was a good, centralized location for us,” Leiendecker said.
Knowink acquired its new headquarters building a year ago from the St. Louis division of the American Heart Association, formerly housed there, for about $2.3 million, according to county records. It invested another $1.2 million to renovate the facility, which Leiendecker said involved “gutting” the building to suit the technology company’s needs.
“We made it our own. A lot of work was done here. It took about six months for us to do it,” he said.
Within its two-level headquarters in Creve Coeur, Knowink has emphasized collaboration through huddle rooms and gathering spaces. There’s also a game room, break room, town hall meeting space and outdoor deck where employees can interact.
“I’ve found we’re more successful when we’re there as a group,” Leiendecker said.
Scroll through the slideshow below to see Knowink's new headquarters and Tuesday's ribbon cutting.
Knowink opens new headquarters building
Local Knowink employees work out of the headquarters four days per week and have the option to either work from home or the office on the fifth day, Leiendecker said.
Remiger Design was the architect on Knowink’s headquarters project, with ISC Contracting handling construction.
Key to Knowink’s headquarters search was finding a building it could buy.
“I think it’s old school, but I like to control my own destiny,” Leiendecker said. “We’re lucky enough to have the option to purchase. We’ve been a fairly successful business over the years, so it just made sense to purchase.”
The company also owned its previous office in Downtown West, which it sold to TKFC LC, an entity affiliated with St. Louis City SC.
Throughout its search for a new headquarters, Leiendecker said the biggest challenge was finding a building at its target size. Leiendecker said most buildings on the market were larger, in the range of 30,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet, which would have required Knowink to sublease a portion of the space. Its headquarters at 460 N. Lindbergh allows it to be the sole tenant and includes space to grow head count there, with Leiendecker estimating it could comfortably fit another 25 employees.
Leiendecker expects growth in the years ahead as Knowink continues to expand its flagship product, the Poll Pad, to new geographies and seeks to expand its relationship with existing customers. As it grows, he said it ideally wants to add employees locally.
“When we are recruiting, we are typically wanting to recruit here first. That’s our first line of attack, to get somebody here in our doors,” he said.
