The Deerfield Beach building where the South Florida daily newspaper Sun Sentinel keeps its printing press just sold to an affiliate of the Gramercy Property Trust for $25.5 million.
Located at 333 Southwest 12th Avenue, the industrial building houses some of the Sentinel’s offices and its printing equipment. It measures 381,749 square feet and was sold by Tribune Media, the newspaper’s landlord and former parent company of the Sun Sentinel’s owner, Tribune Publishing.
County records show Tribune Media sold the building for just under $67 per square foot to a company managed by the Gramercy Property Trust, a commercial real estate investor and asset manager headquartered in New York. Tribune Media spokesperson Gary Weitman declined to comment, and a request for comment to the Gramery Property Trust was not immediately returned.
However, a source told The Real Deal that the Sun Sentinel has a long-term lease at the building that went with the sale.
An archived Sun Sentinel story from 1986 shows Tribune Co., a predecessor to Tribune Media, spent $115 million to build the newspaper’s Deerfield Beach printing plant and has produced its daily publications there ever since.
The Sun Sentinel has its headquarters at 500 East Broward Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. Some of Tribune Publishing’s other newspapers include the Orlando Sentinel, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Times and the Baltimore Sun.
More and more media companies have begun selling their real estate in recent years as the newspaper and publishing industries struggle.
In South Florida, one of the most notable sales was the Miami Herald’s former bayfront headquarters in Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District. Gaming giant Genting Group bought that prime land for $236 million in 2011 with plans to build a massive resort and casino there, though its plans have since stagnated.