Minnesota Public Radio to Expand Downtown St. Paul Campus

ST. PAUL-Minnesota Public Radio said Thursday it plans to expand its campus in downtown St. Paul by buying a nearby building and joining it to its present headquarters.The expansion will mean more than twice the present space for MPR offices and broadcast facilities.

MPR, one of the nation’s largest public radio networks, will pay $7.9 million to buy the 480 Cedar St. building from the Public Housing Agency of St. Paul. The public housing building has 68,000 sf and is just north across Ninth Street from the rear of MPR’s current 45,000-sf headquarters building, located at Seventh and Cedar streets.MPR already leases one-and-a-half floors of the 480 Cedar building to ease overcrowding in its headquarters facility. It also leases a full floor of space in the nearby US Bancorp Piper Jaffray Building.