U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay said the city location is its best asset.

“The best and the brightest want to live near other centers of talent and creative energy like Cortex, Washington Avenue and our great research universities,” Clay said. “Because people who are working on the hardest problems of today and the biggest challenges that America will face in the future want to hang out together.”

Clay took a swipe at St. Clair County, joking: “You just can’t do that in a cornfield that’s next to a strip mall and an Air Force base.”

NGA handles computer mapping support for defense agencies. The agency, which has significantly grown since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, played a pivotal role in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, as well as doing major work during wars and natural disasters.

In fact, most of the elected officials, including Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., discussed millennial workers, the generation born between the 1980s and 2000s, noting their preference of living in urban environments.

Blunt said the new construction will house at least two generations of workers. He added that location is important to recruiting the best talent.