TCF Financial Corp. is pulling out of the TCF Tower and Bank Building in downtown Minneapolis as it consolidates several office locations into a new campus in Plymouth for 1,500 employees.

The exit will shrink TCF's presence in downtown Minneapolis to a sole bank branch in the IDS skyway. Its branch in the TCF Tower and Bank Building closed in December.

In an interview, TCF Vice Chairman Tom Jasper said the consolidation won't reduce the bank's Minne­sota head count, which currently stands at about 3,000 people.

"I think it's going to be a big-time positive for our employees," Jasper said. "It creates some stability and predictability for our employees."

The Wayzata-based lender, the state's No. 3 bank by deposits, announced the move to the Plymouth Corporate Center to its employees Monday. It said the consolidation will improve communication and efficiency and be a "significant upgrade in the quality of workspace" for many workers.

There will be ample free parking, an on-site workout facility with ­showers and an adjacent day care facility, the statement to employees said.

An exterior view of the TCF building at 8th Street and Marquette Avenue in downtown Minneapolis at dusk on Monday.

The shift will happen in phases, starting with 200 people from the bank's Brooklyn Center customer service center in June. The 1,150 employees in the TCF Tower and Bank Building won't move until 2015. The bank's leases in both buildings run out in December 2015.

In addition to TCF's Minneapolis and Brooklyn Center corporate employees, the move includes 110 employees who work in a small office building TCF owns at 150 E. Lake St. in Wayzata; 100 people from its consumer loan operation in the U.S. Bank Center in downtown St. Paul; 25 people working on the second floor of a TCF branch near Ridgedale; and four people working in a Fridley warehouse.

TCF has signed a long-term lease for 330,000 square feet in the Plymouth Corporate Center, taking about half that building's space. The low-slung building is located at 1405 Xenium Lane near Interstate 494 and County Road 6, and is about a 10-minute drive from the bank's Wayzata headquarters.

The move continues TCF's drift from the Minneapolis business core, where rival U.S. Bancorp has its corporate headquarters and Wells Fargo & Co. heads up its large Minnesota operation.

TCF has been a corporate presence in downtown Minneapolis since it was founded in 1923 as the Twin City Building and Loan Association. The 17-story TCF Tower at 121 S. 8th St. was built in 1974. The adjacent, shorter bank building was built in 1931, according to TCF.

In 1997, Chairman William Cooper and other top executives of TCF moved their offices to Wayzata as part of the company's conversion from a federal savings bank to a national bank, to separate its banking functions from the functions of the bank holding company. Then in 2009, the bank's legal home moved to Sioux Falls, S.D.

The downtown tower and bank building are both owned by Franklin Street Properties Corp., a real estate investment company in Boston, and are managed by Minneapolis-based Ryan Cos., which owned the buildings before selling them to Franklin Street Properties in 2010. A regional executive with Franklin Street Properties did not return messages seeking a comment.

News of the move surprised Plymouth Mayor Kelli Slavik. Slavik said that she and her family just returned Sunday from a family trip to Mexico and she hadn't known anything about TCF's plans.

"Getting 1,500 new employees in the city is definitely a positive for us," Slavik said, "and we're really excited about it."

Jennifer Bjorhus • 612-673-4683