Shutterfly/Lifetouch demolishes one of its Eden Prairie buildings along I-494

Shutterfly/Lifetouch has torn down one of its buildings just off Interstate 494 in Eden Prairie, a move that will bring more greenspace to its campus.

The bulldozing plan, which was approved by the Eden Prairie City Council in December, has left Shutterfly/Lifetouch with only one of the two buildings that were on the campus at 11000 Viking Drive, city officials confirmed Monday. According to city documents, the property will be left vacant for the use of employees.

It is not clear if any job changes will result from the building consolidation, said Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce President Pat MulQueeny.

"That's not something I have heard of at this point," he said.

The demolition is just the latest change among many for Shutterfly and its Lifetouch subsidiary.

Shutterfly bought Lifetouch's photo studio business in April 2018 and in 2020 relocated nearly 100 Shutterfly marketing and merchandising jobs from California to the Eden Prairie campus to better coordinate marketing efforts between the entities.

At the time, Lifetouch had nearly 700 employees at the Eden Prairie campus.

The Lifetouch photo studios have continued operating in Eden Prairie, working on sizable contracts such as the photographing of kindergartners, grade school classes, church members and J.C. Penney customers across the nation, officials said in previous interviews.

In June 2019, the private equity firm Apollo Global announced it was buying Shutterfly for $1.74 billion. In January, Shutterfly announced plans to lay off 97 workers at its Shakopee warehouse in an effort to reduce costs. The industry has suffered during the last decade as more families opt to use cell phone photos and social media sites to share images that once were relegated to traditional photography venues.