Luxury developers love to redevelop former newspaper HQs

Dozens of America’s print newspapers have bit the dust or downsized in recent years, leaving behind offices complexes in cities across the country. Luxury real estate developers have been quick to scoop them up for redevelopments.

Chicago’s neo-Gothic Tribune Tower, once home to the Chicago Tribune, is the latest to get the adaptive reuse treatment. CIM Group and Golub & Co. are turning the 1925 building into 162 luxury condominiums that could open by the first quarter of 2021.

Architectural features in the lobby and in units will be restored, as well as the large Chicago Tribune sign on the tower’s exterior. Units are expected to list for between $900,000 and $7.6 million. The pricier units are located within the tower’s turret.

Developer Onni Group has similar adaptive reuse plans for the former Los Angeles Times headquarters in Downtown L.A., according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Boston Herald’s former home in South Boston became one of the first newspaper headquarters to get the redevelopment treatment. National Development picked up the property shortly after the Herald moved in 2012 and quickly redeveloped the seven-acre property into a mixed-use complex.

The Ink Block includes 718 residential units, a hotel, restaurants, and other retail, including a 50,000-square-foot Whole Foods market. Most of the development is new construction, but National Development peppered some newspaper artifacts in public areas of the Ink Block.

The former headquarters of the Herald’s larger rival, the Boston Globe, is also getting a makeover by developer Nordblom.

Related Development kept none of the Tampa Tribune’s former headquarters when it redeveloped the site in 2017. Related demolished the complex in its entirety and put up 400 luxury rental units collectively called Manor Riverwalk. Studios start at $1,646-per-month and go up to $4607-per-month for a three-bedroom unit. [WSJ] — Dennis Lynch