The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families is packing up its St. Paul offices and heading to the Farwell-on-Water development, where it plans to move into the renovated W2 Works warehouse at 106 Water Street. The department is slated to take roughly 92,000 square feet in the building, a footprint that developer estimates say would bring about 400 employees into the riverfront district on a typical weekday. It is one of the largest single-tenant moves into the West Side redevelopment in recent months.
According to the Pioneer Press, the offices will be housed in the six-story W2 Works building at 106 Water St., part of developer Buhl Investors’ Farwell-on-Water project. Buhl Investors told the outlet the department will occupy about 92,000 square feet of remodeled warehouse space and that the agency’s presence is expected to add an average of roughly 400 daily employees to the neighborhood.
The department still lists its administrative address at 444 Lafayette Road N. in St. Paul on its official website, where it runs many statewide programs and services, according to the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families. The move into Farwell-on-Water will keep a major state office inside the city while shifting a sizable portion of staff to the riverfront district.
Commissioner Tikki Brown told the Pioneer Press that the new location "allows us to remain in St. Paul and will help us better support our workforce with technology infrastructure and collaborative spaces." She described the relocation as part of a broader push to modernize agency operations and upgrade workplace technology and collaboration.
About the building and neighborhood
Farwell-on-Water is a mixed-use riverfront redevelopment that transformed the historic Farwell Ozmun Kirk warehouse and added new residential buildings including Esox House and Harbourline. The project’s site notes that the W2 Works building offers artist studios and professional office suites aimed at creative and nonprofit tenants. The development is marketed as a blend of housing, studios, and modern office space designed to bring new energy to the West Side riverfront for residents and visitors.
W2 Works has already drawn nonprofits and creative organizations. Finance & Commerce reported that Friends of the Mississippi River moved its headquarters into the building, underscoring the developer’s effort to combine cultural and office uses in the renovated warehouse. That mix of tenants helps explain why a state agency would see the complex as a fit for a large office footprint.
What this could mean for the West Side
A steady daytime population of several hundred employees could give a real boost to local retailers, restaurants, and transit ridership along Water Street and around nearby Harriet Island. Axios Twin Cities has highlighted growing development interest on the West Side and has pointed to Farwell-on-Water as part of a broader wave of riverfront projects that have been attracting investment in recent years.
Officials have not yet released a public timetable for when DCYF staff will move into the building, and initial reports did not spell out the lease start date or whether the move will roll out in phases. Local leaders and businesses will be watching to see how quickly the agency’s presence translates into regular foot traffic and new commercial activity on the riverfront.
