Friday, January 18, 2013

Rochester | Frank Gannett's building to market

[Corporate's original headquarters was here in Rochester, N.Y.]

Company founder Frank E. Gannett built the structure in 1927-28 to house his corporate offices, printing presses and newsroom for the now-defunct Rochester Times-Union. After additions to the building, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle joined the paper there in 1959.

Gannett
The newspapers kept separate newsrooms until the staffs merged in 1992. Five years later, the paper opened a new production plant in nearby Greece. Corporate moved its headquarters to suburban Washington in 1986, later relocating it to McLean, Va., in 2001.

Today, the Democrat and Chronicle told readers that the property is now for sale, becoming the latest GCI property to look for new, more modern quarters nearby that will reflect a smaller staff size. In October, Alabama's Montgomery Advertiser and Vermont's Burlington Free Press made similar announcements.

Rochester's move is expected to be completed by the middle of next year, according to the paper.

To be sure, GCI isn't alone: Other newspaper publishers across the nation are freeing up excess property as markets recover from the real estate bust.

5 comments:

  1. As with Sears/Kmart, the real estate belonging to many publishers is worth more than the ongoing business.

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  2. Have any of the other properties sold?

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  3. Indy is for sale. Not sold yet.

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  4. Any idea whether the Rochester paper will stay downtown?

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  5. Yes, the operations that are downtown now will remain downtown.

    ReplyDelete

Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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