The nearly 300 employees have been housed in three Downtownlocations: In the station's headquarters office at East Seventh andCedar streets it built about two decades ago, a block away on the19th floor of the Piper Jaffray Plaza office tower, and at the St.Paul Public Housing building across the street at 480 Cedar St.Ninth Street will be vacated and Minnesota Public Radio will buythe 480 Cedar building from Public Housing St. Paul for $7.8million.

When the work is done, Ninth Street will be a cul-de-sac withentry from Minnesota Street. The new 120,000-sf building, designedby the Hammel, Green and Abrahamson architectural firm, will doubleMinnesota Public Radio's space. It will have eight studios, morepublic space, a digital library and more.

The new building created a Minnesota Public Radio campus thatincludes the headquarters, the new building and the FitzgeraldTheater, less than a block away, the home of "Prairie HomeCompanion." The public radio station plans to announce a pledgedrive to help raise funds for the $41-million building and $5million in technology improvements and programming additions.