The Dallas Morning News’ longtime printing plant in Plano is hitting the market, and it could fetch a hefty sum based on the land value.
The news outlet’s parent company, DallasNews Corporation, plans to put the 620,000-square-foot printing facility on West Plano Parkway up for sale, the publication reported. The 29-acre property includes an 82,000-square-foot parking garage.
Notably, the land alone carries an appraised value of just under $12.6 million, almost $434,000 per acre and nearly double the building’s valuation of $6.5 million, according to property tax records.
The Dallas Morning News plans to relocate its printing operations to a smaller facility in Carrollton, a move that’s projected to save the newspaper $5 million annually and eliminate approximately 85 jobs. To facilitate the transition, the company has suspended its quarterly dividend of 16 cents per share.
A sale of the printing plant is expected to bolster the company’s cash reserves, as DallasNews currently carries no debt.
The Plano property is zoned for light industrial use, opening the door for redevelopments such as a data center, self storage or a small-scale logistics operation.
The company’s new printing operations will be housed in a 67,000-square-foot leased building in Carrollton; it’s expected to be operational by early 2025. The smaller facility, which will be significantly cheaper to operate, will be equipped with a new printing press costing about $8 million, funded by the company’s cash reserves.
Despite the downsizing, the Dallas Morning News remains committed to printing seven days a week, a rarity among newspapers nationwide.
“A number of our peers have made the decision to outsource their print operations to locations outside of their city. We did not want to do that,” said DallasNews president Katy Murray
The transition, expected to take about eight months, will result in a 60 percent reduction in staff. The affected employees have been offered severance pay, the outlet said.
The Plano plant was built in the early 1980s and expanded in 1992, when it was ranked as the nation’s leading newspaper in total full-run advertising.
—Quinn Donoghue
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