The Star Tribune keeps making news.
Late Thursday afternoon, Star Tribune Media Company announced plans to move the newspaper’s offices to Capella Tower in downtown Minneapolis. The Star Tribune’s operations will be located in what has been known as the Park Building, a shorter tower that is part of the Capella Tower complex. As part of the deal, the Park Building at 650 Third Avenue South in Minneapolis will be renamed the “Star Tribune Building.” The move is expected in mid-2015.
“We said all along we want to be in the central business district,” Steve Yaeger, spokesman for the Star Tribune, told Twin Cities Business. “It was a requirement that we fit our newsroom all on one floor.”
Yaeger said that the company considered a short list of about five downtown buildings before zeroing in on Capella Tower. Yaeger said that the Star Tribune is leasing a total of 138,000 square feet in the new building.
The company will move more than 600 employees to the new space including editorial, sales and marketing, digital, finance, human resources, and IT staffers. Yaeger said that the Star Tribune will occupy the entire 11th and 12th floors of the building, and most of the 13th floor.
In February, the Star Tribune sold five city blocks including its headquarters at 425 Portland Avenue for $38.5 million. The newspaper is currently leasing back its longtime headquarters from Minneapolis-based Ryan Companies, which has a $400 million plan to redevelop the Downtown East land.
On Tuesday, the Star Tribune and Minnesota billionaire Glen Taylor jointly announced that they have executed a letter of intent for Taylor to acquire the company. Terms of the offer were not disclosed. That deal is expected to close in late spring.
The Star Tribune also employs another 600 employees at its Heritage Center printing and distribution plant at 800 First Street North in the North Loop area of Minneapolis. According to the company’s announcement, the printing plant will be “largely unaffected” by the relocation of the newspaper’s headquarters.