AgriBank, FCB-a wholesale lender and one of Minnesota's largest private companies-will vacate its longtime home in one downtown St. Paul building for another downtown skyscraper.

AgriBank, formerly called Farm Credit Bank of St. Paul, has occupied the Jackson building since 1967, when it developed the building. It plans to move to Wells Fargo Place.

The company's current lease, which includes 100,000 square feet of office space in the Jackson building, expires at the end of 2011, according to communications manager Becca Yaklich.

Yaklich said in a Friday phone interview that AgriBank's move to Wells Fargo Place will occur after November 1, and the company is not yet sure if it will relocate in phases or all at once.

All 185 of AgriBank's employees will transfer to Wells Fargo Place, where the company will occupy 75,000 square feet, including an atrium and four floors of the building.

The company declined to disclose financial terms of the transaction, but Yaklich said that the move was motivated in part by a “receptive market.” Wells Fargo Place “best serves our needs now and in the future,” she said, adding that the move also represents a shift from a Class B space to a Class A property-which indicates that it is more highly sought by tenants and offers better amenities.

Minneapolis-based HGA Architects and Engineers, one of Minnesota's largest architectural firms, will work with AgriBank to design its newly leased space.

AgriBank, which has roughly $68 billion in assets, facilitates agricultural lending by providing credit and services to a 15-state network of associations.

AgriBank is Minnesota's 10th-largest private company based on revenue, which totaled $1.9 billion in 2009, the latest year for which data is available. For the nine months ended September 30, the company reported net income of $442.1 million-up nearly 50 percent from the same period in 2009.