After more than a month of speculation, some employees got the official word yesterday: Gannett is, indeed, selling the Poughkeepsie Journal's famous New York headquarters (left), with plans to lease back space.The company is asking $5.3 million for the 73,238 square-foot structure, built on 2.9 acres in 1930s. Its fieldstone facing was influenced by the architectural interests of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose nearby Hyde Park estate served as White House annex in 1933-45.
R.I.P. integrity and pride and morale.
ReplyDeletenot all employees who were on duty inside the building were told.
ReplyDeletewow! i am surprised it took soo long?
ReplyDeletehas anyone been on the third or fourth floor at the journal news?it's all empty,abandoned offices all over,maybe the 54 acres the journal news sits on will soon be Gannett acres,a new kind of condo development in beutiful downtown Harrison!
Typical Gannett. Wait til the value of the property is at its lowest in a decade, then sell it in a market where there are no buyers.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with that.
I suspect that this is only the first of several, or maybe many, such sales. Why own, service, heat and air-condition old (beautiful, but old) buildings that were made to house much bigger operations than Gannett's newspapers are now?
ReplyDeleteMy experience is in Wisconsin. I can think of two old buildings occupied by Gannett Wisconsin papers that are beautiful in the old-fashioned-metro-newspaper way. (Not as splendid as the pictured New York building, but nice.) They're iconic, but they're energy sieves with space for printing and news operation that's no longer used.
The downsized news operations at work in those old downtown buildings could as easily and less expensively be housed in an abandoned Walmart at the edge of town or the like. And I suspect that's the kinds of places where some papers will be going. Not only do you reap the one-time benefits of a property sale, you also harvest benefits down the road in lowered operating costs.
People who wring their hands about iconic and beautiful buildings are people who think and talk like journalists (some of whom are closeted or frustrated poets or novelists).
Always remember--and never forget--Gannett is not run by journalists.
11:10 is right about some of the aging Wisconsin buildings. They're smaller than the Poughkeepsie building, so they might be easier to sell.
ReplyDeleteIt's criminal that the Gannett zombie management ever got their hands on such a building.
ReplyDeleteAh, 12:01. You must be an English major, or at least a writer. You see "such a building." They see a money pit.
ReplyDeleteFinancially, it's a good move and one can hope that it succeeds in attracting investors who believe downtown Poughkeepsie has a future. It does, though not a bright one for the duration of the recession. It's an excellent site. It was only a few years ago that the whole building was updated and overhauled inside floor by floor to squeeze more space out for people. Shrinking into a smaller footprint is actually overdue. The big question is how subscribers and advertisers will treat the paper over the next five years of that proposed lease and who will lease the remaining 40,000 square feet. Also, the unused press and mailroom equipment has to come out. It's a do-able deal, but not a snap. The important goal is that the paper survives and stays there, so people can still walk under the metal arch that says, "Here shall the press the peoples' right maintain."
ReplyDeletePerhaps Alan Neuharth's Freedom Forum should have purchased the Poughkeepsie building for it's Newseum. It would have been a whole lot cheaper and would have been more significant.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't tell from the annual report if the environmental issues are here or somewhere else in Poughkeepsie.
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteThis might be an interesting thread to blow up beyond Poughkeepsie: "Money-pit buildings we may see the company abandon." There are undoubtedly many, but you could do worse than to illustrate the blog entry with a picture of the Press-Gazette in Green Bay.
A question: Does it really matter whether you operate from an iconic old building that screams "20th century newspaper?" Or can the job be done just as well from an abandoned Walmart? Or from the abandoned Linens and Things in the strip mall on the edge of town? Or from the soon-to-be-abandoned Circuit City story many towns are about to get?
I think I know what Gannett will do. It's just a matter of time and making sure the numbers work (i.e. real estate market, maintenance costs etc.) in the markets where they do it.
Ah yes ... the age-old battle between the English majors and the biz majors. Me? I'm an English major. But I don't kid myself about who runs the world.
"Ah, 12:01. You must be an English major, or at least a writer. You see "such a building." They see a money pit.
ReplyDelete3/07/2009 12:07 PM"
That's because they are idiots, as proven by the results of their brilliant leadership.
And right you are, an English major I am.
So am I, 12:45. No slight intended.
ReplyDeleteI think the abandoned Wal-Mart or LinensNThings buildings would be much more efficient than many Gannett downtown newspaper locations. Someone already itemized the economies. As historic and special these edifices may be, they aren't really practical for a new workplace model that needs to change every few years, plugging in new people and new technology to easily reconfigured pods. And then there is the parking stranglehold of many downtown locations. When parking costs $100 a month or more, it is a big dent to a person's wages.
ReplyDeleteAnother plus to relocating to a retail district is getting back where the people are. City centers may still be a professional hub, but the people who will buy the paper are clustered around service areas now. That's where things are happening.
I bet that we are going to see allot of Gannett sites selling off their properties in the near future as the company becomes a lean mean machine, especially the sites that no longer have a presses running.
ReplyDeleteI had the "pleasure" of working in this building for a while, before it was renovated. It was beautiful on the outside and dingy and unhealthy on the inside. I would start coughing shortly after arriving each day and continue coughing until I left.
ReplyDeleteEvery morning, a thick coating of dust would cover my computer screen. I'd wipe it off, but it would be back the next day.
The chemicals from the press area would waft into the newsroom and make us sick, especially when they would do some kind of pre-press run in the morning or afternoon. People occasionally would have to go home after breathing fumes. Anyone who complained would incur the publisher's wrath.
The librarian used to be this crazy lady who clipped the newspapers and filed stories and photos in cabinets under a system that was wholly her own. After she left, they just moved those cabinets somewhere else in the building and started over. They probably still have photos of FDR somewhere in there.
The building is gorgeous and in a great location. But who the heck is going to want to buy it and lease space back to the Journal?
My guess would be that the Poughkeepsie building provides a nice test case for them. Because once they've unloaded a building like that other disvestitures won't seem as bad.
ReplyDeleteI am healthier since leaving The Des Moines Register. People who work there are always coughing and sniffling, year round. Management has frequently squashed rumors that the building, which is sealed up to try to cut down on heating and cooling costs, has sick building syndrome. When the roof leaked, the water pooled over the newsroom and then dumped gallons and gallons of dirty ice melt on desks, computers and files. There is a reason the ceiling is painted black.
ReplyDeleteIt is one of those historic buildings, but it isn't very pretty. It is a business housed in two cobbled-together buildings, one taller than the other. In the Iowa winter, the editorial/opinion department is freezing. In the summer, the newsroom has areas that are steaming hot. The press has been removed, but they've put in private printing equipment somewhere down there and we still can smell the blanket wash or whatever that chemical is. The newspaper has a fancy new printing/circulation building out in the countryside, south of town. Few people in Des Moines realize that people still work in the downtown building.
In truth, newspaper employees can work anywhere today. There is no need to go downtown to be where the typewriters used to be.
1:37 said: "The building is gorgeous and in a great location. But who the heck is going to want to buy it and lease space back to the Journal?"
ReplyDeleteWho says that's the goal? Stated goals mean nothing in corporate life. No buyers mean an opportunity to abandon and move on. Don't believe me? Scenarios like this have been the precursor to the wrecking ball in many communities. You just need plausible "cover" to dump it, lest you face the wrath of the preservationists every community has without a good story.
"So am I, 12:45. No slight intended.
ReplyDelete3/07/2009 1:04 PM"
None taken.
>>In truth, newspaper employees can work anywhere today.
ReplyDeleteAnd in fact I *always* get more work done at home than I do in the office. Fewer idiotic distractions.
What is it about newspapers not fixing their roofs?
ReplyDelete4:18 Newspapers don't fix their roofs because there is no financial incentive to do so. A publisher who maintains a building may go over the expense budget and loose their bonus. Performance is judged by how much income the property can generate now. No one gets brownie points for preventative maintenance or investing for the future.
ReplyDeleteI'm 4:18. That was a rhetorical question, but thanks for your answer.
ReplyDeleteIt just pisses me off. We're in a grand old building and too many ceiling tiles are stained where the leaks came in, and the ducts are black with mold dust.
What an interesting building!
ReplyDeleteThere are whispers in Reno that the same thing will be happening there.
Makes sense really. You should see the new break room that was built.
The colors and design are ugly as hell. But it had to cost tons for the equipment, and wasted labor.
Plus there is no one left to actually USE a break room. Must be there for the new potential buyers.
And the rest of the building.
Lots of painting, cleaning. Moving employees around. It looks like all the employees are being moved to one end of the building.
Then a stupid email about a mouse problem. Nobody cared before..Now
all the sudden Reno cares about mice?
fishy fishy.
Reno for sale?