The Dallas Morning Information’ longtime printing plant in Plano is hitting the market, and it may fetch a hefty sum based mostly on the land worth.
The information outlet’s mother or father firm, DallasNews Company, plans to place the 620,000-square-foot printing facility on West Plano Parkway up on the market, the publication reported. The 29-acre property consists of an 82,000-square-foot parking storage.
Notably, the land alone carries an appraised worth of just below $12.6 million, virtually $434,000 per acre and almost double the constructing’s valuation of $6.5 million, based on property tax information.
The Dallas Morning Information plans to relocate its printing operations to a smaller facility in Carrollton, a transfer that’s projected to avoid wasting the newspaper $5 million yearly and get rid of roughly 85 jobs. To facilitate the transition, the corporate has suspended its quarterly dividend of 16 cents per share.
A sale of the printing plant is predicted to bolster the corporate’s money reserves, as DallasNews presently carries no debt.
The Plano property is zoned for gentle industrial use, opening the door for redevelopments corresponding to a knowledge heart, self storage or a small-scale logistics operation.
The corporate’s new printing operations will probably be housed in a 67,000-square-foot leased constructing in Carrollton; it’s anticipated to be operational by early 2025. The smaller facility, which will probably be considerably cheaper to function, will probably be geared up with a brand new printing press costing about $8 million, funded by the corporate’s money reserves.
Regardless of the downsizing, the Dallas Morning Information stays dedicated to printing seven days every week, a rarity amongst newspapers nationwide.
“Quite a few our friends have made the choice to outsource their print operations to areas outdoors of their metropolis. We didn’t wish to do this,” stated DallasNews president Katy Murray
The transition, anticipated to take about eight months, will lead to a 60 % discount in workers. The affected staff have been supplied severance pay, the outlet stated.
The Plano plant was constructed within the early Nineteen Eighties and expanded in 1992, when it was ranked because the nation’s main newspaper in complete full-run promoting.
—Quinn Donoghue
