The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News, along with their joint business operation the Detroit Media Partnership, will relocate to the old Federal Reserve building at 160 W. Fort St. (between Shelby and Griswold streets) this summer, according to a source familiar with the deal who spoke to Crain’s on Wednesday night on the condition of anonymity.
Joyce Jenereaux, president of the Detroit Media Partnership, said in an email to employees Wednesday night that a long-term lease was in the works and expected to be signed in four to five weeks, the newspapers reported. Details of the lease were not disclosed.
Detroit real estate investor Dan Gilbert owns the Federal Reserve building, which is 167,443 square feet, with about 100,000 square feet of space available, according to the Bedrock Real Estate Services website.
It was not immediately clear if Gilbert will buy the newspapers’ current 415,000-square-foot building at 615 W. Lafayette Blvd., between Second and Third streets. There was speculation last year that the Federal Reserve building was a possible new home for the papers, and that Gilbert was a potential buyer for the newspaper building.
Alan Lenhoff, director of project management and corporate communications for the DMP, said the three organizations will occupy the newer and older parts of the building, the Free Press reported. The Free Press and News will continue to have separate areas, it said.
No other details about the deal are known. Requests for comment were made with Lenhoff and Gilbert’s organization.
The partnership, which handles the printing, circulation and other corporation functions for the competing newspapers, said in January 2013 that the plan was to leave the current shared building and move into a smaller, more modern leased space elsewhere in the city.
Both newspapers have downsized staff and reduced other expenses as cost-cutting measures for years.
The move will affect about 600 staffers.
The News has been in the Albert Kahn-designed building at 615 W. Lafayette Blvd. since it opened as a printing facility in 1917. The partnership moved in during 1989, and the Free Press followed in 1998.
