The Licking County Commissioners are scheduled to vote on Thursday to buy the former Advocate newspaper building in downtown Newark.
If approved on Sept. 30, the resolution would authorize Commissioner Tim Bubb to sign a contract to purchase the 72,000-square-foot building and adjacent parking lots at 22 N. 1st Street for $2.3 million.
The property on a little under two acres includes office space, the former pressroom and a large warehouse. The building dates to 1992 and was last used as a newspaper office by Gannett, which bought the property and three other parcels in 2000 for $9.5 million.
That company, now known as USA Today Company, sold off all of the properties by 2018 and it no longer has a press or an office in Licking County.
The office and warehouse building has been sold several times since Gannett sold it, and it was most recently purchased in March for $1.4 million by “22 N. 1st LLC,” which Bubb said is owned by an investor.
“For us, it’s a heck of a buy,” Bubb told The Reporting Project. “It’s been sitting empty for a while and will need some work, but we will have some need in the future for space.”
He said all three commissioners have toured the building, and he expects the resolution will be approved. The county has no immediate plans for the building but saw it as a good investment for the county and downtown Newark.
“We couldn’t begin to acquire that much land downtown for that price,” Bubb said. “And to build something like that now would be a $30 million project.”
After a purchase contract is signed, perhaps as soon as Thursday, the county will do inspections and could close on the property before the end of the year.”
“There is off-street parking with the building,” Bubb said. And that parking is between the former Advocate building and a small office building the county owns on the northeast corner of N. 1st and E. Main streets.
“This gives us a lot of options as we need space,” Bubb said. “For us, it’s a real opportunity to acquire space while we can do it – and give us some flexibility.”
Alan Miller writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.