PricewaterhouseCoopers will move its Minneapolis office next summer

By Kristen Leigh Painter kristen.painter@startribune.com

PricewaterhouseCoopers is moving all of its Minneapolis employees from one downtown building to another and gaining a namesake tower in the process.

The global professional services firm will leave Capella Tower at 225 S. 6th St. for Plaza Seven Tower at 45 S. 7th St. next summer when its current lease expires. Plaza Seven will then be renamed PwC Tower, or something similar.

PwC's Minneapolis staffing has nearly doubled in the last five years to 625 employees and is actively hiring more accountants, auditors, consultants and other professionals, said Tom Montminy, PwC's Minneapolis managing partner. The decision to move was largely driven by two factors: growing capacity needs and the shifting demographic of its employees.

"About 70 percent of our staff are millennials, and by the time we move in next year we will be closer to 80 percent. It's a young workforce that's very mobile and collaborative," Montminy said. "We looked all over the Class A space in downtown, and this is an exciting naming-rights opportunity and we get to reconfigure it how we want. We are engaging our staff to build it out how they want it."

PwC will occupy 66,000 square feet compared with its existing 60,000 square feet. While its existing space on floors 13 and 14 in Capella are nice, he said, it's "a bit more classic of 10-15 years ago. A lot darker with interior, hard walls, where everyone is separated and segregated by high-walled cubicles."

The new space is vacant and has been gutted to the beams, offering many ways to customize the design.

The 12 ½-year lease includes part of floor 28 and all of floors 33 to 36. Those higher floors offer decks on both the Nicollet Mall side and the stadium side of the 36-story building. Plaza Seven has a total of 315,000 square feet and is also home to Radisson Blu's downtown Minneapolis hotel.

San Francisco-based City Center Realty Partners bought the building in 2013, well aware of the property's challenges.

"The elevators needed to be improved and access from the skyway was not great," said Eric Anderson, executive vice president with City Center Realty Partners.

The firm spent several million dollars on an elevator renovation, including a new stop on the skyway level with a new lobby. The landlord also worked with Macy's to widen the skyway connection that passes through its downtown store.

Anderson said they are thrilled to have PwC at the property. Once the company moves in, PwC will be the largest tenant, upping the building's occupancy rate to 96 percent.