The Burlington Free Press had quite a scoop Friday morning: As business writer Dan D’Ambrosio reports, the Freeps itself is selling off $3.3 million worth of downtown real estate — the bulk of its College Street headquarters.
The paper hopes to sell 55,570 square-feet of space in seven interconnected buildings, which range from two to four stories each, according to a listing on the website of real estate broker V/T Commercial.
The Freeps will hold on to 40,000 square-feet of space in five additional buildings it owns on the block. Those include its mailroom and printing press, which was recently refurbished to the tune of $2.4 million. The paper also hopes to lease back 10,000 square-feet of office space from a prospective buyer in order to keep its newsroom and business operations downtown.
“The Free Press is committed to supporting the vibrant Burlington community and all of the Vermont communities we serve every day,” Freeps publisher Jim Fogler said in a press release. “We plan to stay in downtown Burlington and lease some of the office space. This is an exciting opportunity and an attractive one for a developer to create multi-use space in this wonderful downtown location with a built-in tenant.”
Fogler declined a request for an interview.
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• photo-link needs to bring up a larger (not smaller), legible, more informative image, pls
How low does 7days have to go? Slamming the free press and acting like the smug know it all? Take the high road 7days. Your jouralism these days is more yellow than ever before.
The BFP ship is sinking. Not surprising, poor management… poor product… increase in prices …
Good riddance, the sooner they sell the rest of the buildings and close up shop the better.
Free press is a great idea indeed. One must implement this idea.