U.S. Bank to move 1,600 workers from St. Paul to Richfield

U.S. Bank will be moving some 1,600 workers from its facility on Shepard Road in St. Paul to Richfield.

Those workers are going to the Meridian Crossing complex at the junction of interstates I-494 and 35W in the Minneapolis suburb.

US Bank spokesman Steve Dale said the bank outgrew the St. Paul facility.

"We will be moving these jobs there simply because we were busting at the seams at the former location. And we need room to be able to grow. And it's also an upgrade as far as our facilities are concerned," Dale said.

Cecile Bedor, director of planning and economic development for the city of St. Paul, said the city tried to help U.S. Bank find a new facility in St. Paul.

"We worked with them for quite some time to try to find a location in St. Paul," said Bedor. "But our available existing buildings simply didn't fit what they were looking for."

Bedor says it's not clear how much the loss of 1,600 jobs will hurt the city's economy. But she's confident a new tenant -- or tenants -- can be found for the Shepard Road facility, which is just minutes from the Twin Cities airport.

"That is a great location," said Bedor. "And our assumption is that the landlord will be aggressive in recruiting a new company there that will take the place of the U.S. Bank employees in our economy."

The U.S. Bank employees will begin moving by the final three months of this year. They'll complete their move by April of 2011.

The employees work in technology, product management, human resources, credit and other departments.

U.S. Bank has been at the Shepard Road location for 12 years, The bank has some 3,200 other employees in the city of St. Paul. Overall, U.S. Bank has more than 9,000 employees in the Twin Cities.