Paul Bunyan Communications expanding in Grand Rapids

Paul Bunyan Communications will be building a new facility in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, beginning this summer and opening in the late spring of 2020.

The member-based, non-profit cooperative began expanding its all-fiber optic network to the Cohasset and Grand Rapids areas in 2004. Since then, Paul Bunyan Communications has continued to aggressively expand to rural areas of Itasca and St. Louis counties providing gigabit Internet and other communication services to areas lacking these critical services. Paul Bunyan Communications is now the largest broadband cooperative in the state of Minnesota.

The first Paul Bunyan Communications office in Grand Rapids was in leased space in the Central Square Mall from 2005-2008. To meet growing customer demand, the company’s current larger leased retail space was opened in 2008 on Pokegama Ave. South, which will remain open until the cooperative-owned facility construction is complete.

The construction manager of the project is Kraus-Anderson. Paul Bunyan Communications and KA have put a priority on hiring local contractors who are members of the cooperative for the project whenever feasible.

KA has a deep relationship with Paul Bunyan Communications, having constructed portions of its cooperative headquarters in Bemidji, Minnesota, along with several additions, network facilities and remodeling projects.