When guests enter AB Mauri North America’s new Pasteur Hall, they are greeted by this message from Louis Pasteur, the French microbiologist and chemist renowned for his discoveries in microbial fermentation and pasteurization: “To be astonished at anything is the first movement of the mind towards discovery.” In Pasteur Hall, as well as the expanded bakingHUB and Fleischmann’s Technology Center, AB Mauri North America will support its customers on their road to discovery.

Situated in St. Louis’ Cortex Innovation Community, AB Mauri’s new headquarters — including the bakingHUB, Fleischmann’s Technology Center and Pasteur Hall — all comprise a meeting place of innovation and creativity. The company initially relocated to the renovated @4240 building in the Cortex community in 2015 and occupied 23,000 square feet of office space with the 5,000-square-foot bakingHUB and pilot fermentation facility for research.

AB Mauri was drawn to the Cortex development’s innovative office spaces and the neighbors it attracted. The development is a 200-acre urban campus of innovation and entrepreunership. The @4240 building is Certified LEED Platinum and features solar panels, permeable pavement and 500 large, industrial windows to maximize the use of natural light for the comfort of its tenants. With neighbors such as Boeing Defense and Microsoft, AB Mauri is in good company for inventive thinking.

“It was important for AB Mauri to be near other innovative start-ups and established companies,” said Mark Prendergast, president of AB Mauri North America.

This year, the company expanded to 33,000 square feet, a buildout that included more space in the bakingHUB, a larger yeast strain development center and Pasteur Hall.

“This multi-million-dollar expansion underscores our commitment to the industrial baking industry in North America,” Mr. Prendergast said. “It allows us the opportunity to boost the scale and functionality of our current technical baking and fermentation facilities so we can accelerate our research and development.”

The bakingHUB offers a place for AB Mauri’s technical team members to do their own research as well as get their hands in the dough with customers to develop custom solutions for the stickiest challenges across bakery applications: pan bread, artisan baguettes, sweet goods, pizza, flour and corn tortillas, donuts, and bagels. The bakingHUB features technology to mimic the commercial processes including mixers, five different ovens, a donut fryer, rounder, proof boxes, and a tortilla press and oven. In addition to rack and deck ovens, the bakingHUB includes an impingement pizza oven. The headquarters also expanded its analytical lab, which allows customers to test for volume and other product characteristics.

“We’ve had multiple customers tell us that spending just a day or two working side-by-side with our team in the St. Louis bakingHUB has saved them weeks and even months developing the right consumer products in their own backyards,” Mr. Prendergast said. “Accelerating innovation time and tapping into our more than 150 years of baking expertise are two key benefits for our customers.”

Not only do bakers have access to AB Mauri’s tech team and global strain development laboratory, but they also can use the company’s new Pasteur Hall, which features a 40-seat theater that may be used for training, product demonstrations, internal meetings, live-streamed events and hosting visiting customers. Multiple cameras and televisions allow the technical team to live-stream demonstrations from various angles and give viewers shots of not only the speaker but also the process.

“At AB Mauri, we are passionate about baking, and it is our intention to remain at the forefront of ingredient technology for industrial bakers in the U.S. and Canada,” Mr. Prendergast said. “Our people and the capabilities of both the Fleischmann’s Technology Center and bakingHUB will help us to ensure we do just that.”