Canadian Pacific outlines closure plans for U.S. headquarters in Minneapolis after merger

Canadian Pacific Railway recently outlined the fate of its U.S. headquarters and workers in downtown Minneapolis as it seeks regulatory approval to merge with Kansas City Southern.

The $31 billion merger, which includes assumed debt, is still pending approval by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. But documents submitted this week to the federal regulators confirm, and further outline, the expected impact on Canadian Pacific's Twin Cities-based employees.

Many of its downtown Minneapolis workers will be offered a chance to move to the combined company's new headquarters in Kansas City.

Company officials say the exit will unfold in phases, repeatedly emphasizing throughout the more than 4,000-page filing an ongoing commitment to, and presence in, the Twin Cities.

Over the course of three years, 135 headquarters jobs, and 72 local dispatcher and clerical jobs in its Soo Line division, will shift from Minneapolis to Kansas City.

CP also proposes shifting 37 positions from downtown Minneapolis to other locations in the Twin Cities.

"Minneapolis-St. Paul will remain a key base of operations for CP," Andy Cummings, a spokesman for Canadian Pacific, said in a statement. "Job relocations would take place over three years during the integration period that would follow approval by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board."

When the proposed merger was first announced in March, CP said that it planned to move its U.S. headquarters from Minneapolis to Kansas City. The new filings offer more concrete details on CP's plan.

In 1990, CP took full control of Minneapolis-based Soo Line Corp. and ran its U.S. business from the Soo Line Building in downtown Minneapolis. The company moved out of that property and into an adjacent office building in 2012 to accommodate an apartment conversion project. At the time, CP leased 80,000 square feet of space in One Financial Plaza, since renamed Canadian Pacific Plaza.

The total number of jobs in the railway's downtown Minneapolis office has been in gradual decline for many years. In 2012, it had about 400 employees in the central business district. In March, Canadian Pacific chief executive Keith Creel told the Star Tribune it had approximately 200 workers downtown.

CP has a deep history in Minnesota, stretching back to the 19th century. St. Paul rail baron James J. Hill, a native of Canada, was among its original investors when the railway was formed in 1881.

The company's global headquarters is in Calgary, Alberta.

Despite the relocation of its domestic headquarters, CP pledges to see a "net increase" in jobs in the Twin Cities, driven by future hiring at the St. Paul Yard and Shoreham Yards in Minneapolis. CP anticipates the merger to generate "more robust traffic" through those railyards.

The deal has several hurdles to cross yet. CP on Wednesday announced a special meeting of its shareholders on Dec. 8 to vote on the proposed merger. Kansas City Southern shareholders are slated to vote two days later.