A St. Paul company that deals and maintains public works equipment is expanding to the city’s East Side — buying up a six-acre lot in an area that has seen plenty of businesses move away in past decades.

The MacQueen Equipment Co., currently at 595 Aldine St., has purchased a vacant grass-filled lot at 1125 E. Seventh St. in which it plans to build 43,000-square-foot building with 14 service bays. Related Articles Neighborhood girl finds and returns chef Justin Sutherland’s stolen knife roll

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“Right now, we’re landlocked and busting at the seams,” said company president Curt Steffen, noting the company’s current site in the city’s Hamline Midway neighborhood is just under two acres and has 28,000 square feet of interior space across three buildings. “We wanted to stay in St. Paul; we’ve been in St. Paul for 50 years.”

The new site will allow MacQueen to consolidate its interior space into one building and leave room for future expansion as well as outdoor storage.

Steffen said the expansion will require some new hiring, on the mechanical and maintenance side as well as in the office.

“Really, our hope is to draw from the local neighborhood and find people able to walk to work,” Steffen said.

MacQueen is headquartered in St. Paul but has other locations, doing business in Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin. it has 35 employees here and 70 company wide. Steffen said he hopes to expand the St. Paul workforce by 25 percent.

The company is primarily a dealership and maintenance facility for public works and road maintenance equipment; roughly 70 percent of its customers are government entities.

City officials noted that the building’s site plan has been approved, though the company still needs appropriate permits through the department of safety and inspections. Steffen said the company was “getting close” to clearing those hurdles.

MacQueen hopes to start construction on the site in March and move in by late fall.