TKDA, a national engineering and design firm based in Minnesota’s capital city since the company’s founding in 1910, is relocating next year to Old Shakopee Road in Bloomington, taking some 300 employees out of downtown St. Paul.

The firm, the latest major company to announce it is retrenching from downtown, is currently based in the 25-story UBS Tower at the Town Square complex at 444 Cedar St./445 Minnesota St.

TKDA announced Thursday it will move its national headquarters to an 87,000-square-foot space in the SoLo building at 3311 Old Shakopee Road in early 2025.

The site, which has an outdoor patio overlooking the Minnesota River, looks out onto the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge and its marshlands. The company has been the sole provider of pavement design, airport construction and maintenance at nearby Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for more than 75 years.

“The new space will accommodate our growth and support our workforce and operational needs now and into the future,” reads a statement issued by TKDA on Thursday. “This location provides easy access to MSP in support of our work there and growing travel requirements as we expand geographically.”

‘Next chapter’

TKDA Chief Executive Officer Tom Stoneburner said in the statement that the decision to relocate “follows considerable evaluation and due diligence with the goal of supporting our company’s growth and the needs of our most valuable asset – our hardworking, talented employees. St. Paul has served us well in our first 114 years of business, and we are excited to begin our next chapter in Bloomington.”

TKDA also employees 85 employees based in Duluth, Chicago, San Bernardino, Calif. and Seattle.

The company’s recent projects have ranged from the design and engineering of civic parks and school buildings to mining, manufacturing, wastewater, aviation and rail transportation.

Other changes downtown

U.S. Bank recently confirmed it will relocate 75 employees from the U.S. Bank Building in downtown St. Paul this year, though the workers will be based just over the river on the city’s West Side. Madison Equities, believed to be downtown St. Paul’s largest property owner, recently placed 10 commercial buildings on the market together, including the U.S. Bank Building and five other downtown office buildings, as well as two downtown parking ramps and two Selby Avenue properties. The company’s stated hope is to land one buyer.

The offering memorandum from CBRE shows most of those properties to be about 44% to 57% leased, though the Park Square Court building by Mears Park, the nearby Empire Building and the adjoining Endicott-Arcade annex all sit vacant.

A flurry of multi-family apartment buildings downtown also have hit the market within the past month, including Madison Equities’ Lowry Apartments at Fourth and Wabasha streets, The Lofts at 262 Fourth St. E. and the R7 Lofts at 133 E. Seventh St. Elsewhere in the city, the C&E Living Apartments at 2410 University Ave. W. in South St. Anthony Park are also up for sale.

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