Archdiocese purchases the St. Paul office building it’s been renting since 2017

After renting an office building on St. Paul’s East Side for the Archdiocesan Catholic Center since 2017, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has purchased that building, Archbishop Bernard Hebda announced June 21 in a letter to priests.

“The building serves our needs well and I am pleased that we were able to work with the owner to purchase it at a fair price,” he wrote.

The ACC moved its offices to 777 Forest St., in St. Paul’s Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood, in February 2017. Archdiocesan staff previously worked from three buildings near the Cathedral of St. Paul. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis sold those buildings in 2016 to increase the amount available to clergy abuse victim-survivors in its bankruptcy reorganization, which began in January 2015 and was resolved in December 2018.

The purchase of 777 Forest St. was made possible by a 2020 estate gift by James and Florence Trainor, parishioners of St. Patrick in Edina. Archbishop Hebda said that when the archdiocese received the gift, he asked the Archdiocesan Finance Corporate Board to “evaluate best options for the bequest.”

Those board members, he said, recommended that the gift be used for three purposes. First was paying off early the $3 million remaining on the survivor trust promissory note, which was part of the 2018 bankruptcy settlement. That was done in June 2021. The second recommendation was to fund abuse prevention programs and victim-survivor support programs, which the archdiocese continues to do, Archbishop Hebda said. The third purpose was to consider capital projects, including the purchase of the ACC building. He did not announce the total amount of the gift.

“In addition to solidifying our presence in the Dayton’s Bluff community, our transition from renter to owner comes with annual rent and property tax savings of approximately $600,000. That significant savings will be helpful for funding our evangelical and charitable mission into the future,” Archbishop Hebda wrote.

He said he plans to dedicate the ACC to the Trainor family in July, which will include the display of a memorial plaque in the building’s lobby.

“Please join me in a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the Trainor family and the many generous benefactors of the Archdiocese,” Archbishop Hebda wrote.

Designed by industrial architect Albert Kahn in the Moderne style and built in 1939, the ACC building originally served as the administration building for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, now known as 3M. It served as the company’s headquarters until 1962, when 3M moved its main campus to Maplewood. It continued to use other buildings on the St. Paul campus until 2009, when it sold the property to St. Paul Port Authority, the city’s development arm. The administration building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.