HalcyonEra
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Henry to sell Globe HQ
Moving broadsheet to smaller digs in ‘heart’ of Boston
By:
Chris Cassidy
Red Sox owner John Henry plans to sell The Boston Globe’s headquarters on Morrissey Boulevard and relocate the broadsheet to a smaller facility somewhere “in the heart of” the Hub — but so far he’s made no mention of when the move will happen or what he’ll do with the paper’s printing press operations.
“I’m sure right now there are a lot of people at the Globe wondering what’s going on, but certainly if I were an employee that worked on the printing press I would be concerned,” said Suffolk University journalism chairman Bob Rosenthal.
One possibility is a consolidation of both the Globe’s 16-acre property off the Southeast Expressway and NESN’s Watertown studios into one building, Rosenthal said.
The decision to sell underlines what many experts have said all along — that the $70 million sale to Henry was mainly a land transaction.
“It is a reminder of how much of the value of the Globe lies in the real estate and physical assets, and how little remains in the financial value of the operating company,” said Nicholas Retsinas, a senior lecturer in real estate at the Harvard Business School.
Experts have told the Herald that Henry could actually fetch $75 million for the property. He technically paid $38.4 million for the site — which is its assessed tax value — in the $70 million deal with The New York Times.
Newspaper industry experts said Henry’s vision seems to echo a national trend of consolidating what were once grand-scale, standalone news facilities into smaller, more modern shared office buildings.
“Most newspapers have cut staff quite substantially in the last seven to 10 years,” said Alan Mutter of the University of California at Berkeley. “They have these large buildings that are increasingly white elephants, so it makes sense for them to move into more compact and arguably more up-to-date headquarters.”
Henry told Boston Magazine in its March issue that the sale of the Globe property “will provide us with the ability to move into a smaller, more efficient and modern facility in the heart of the city. We believe that there is enough excess value there to fund very important investments in our long-term future, if the community supports development of the property.”
A Globe spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment yesterday.
Mark Jurkowitz, a former Globe reporter now at the Pew Research Center, said Henry’s comment to locate the paper “in the heart of the city” points to locations in Back Bay, downtown Boston or the Seaport.
Henry announced last month he had appointed himself publisher and that former Hill Holliday ad exec Michael Sheehan would be chief executive officer.
From today's Herald. I must admit that I have always hated that building, it seems somewhat pompous to me. However, 16 acres is a substantial site for redevelopment. Does anyone have an idea as to the zoning of the site and what could potentially be built there? What's down there for NIMBY's? IMO, there is quite an opportunity to build a signature gateway to the city type of development there.
Moving broadsheet to smaller digs in ‘heart’ of Boston
By:
Chris Cassidy
Red Sox owner John Henry plans to sell The Boston Globe’s headquarters on Morrissey Boulevard and relocate the broadsheet to a smaller facility somewhere “in the heart of” the Hub — but so far he’s made no mention of when the move will happen or what he’ll do with the paper’s printing press operations.
“I’m sure right now there are a lot of people at the Globe wondering what’s going on, but certainly if I were an employee that worked on the printing press I would be concerned,” said Suffolk University journalism chairman Bob Rosenthal.
One possibility is a consolidation of both the Globe’s 16-acre property off the Southeast Expressway and NESN’s Watertown studios into one building, Rosenthal said.
The decision to sell underlines what many experts have said all along — that the $70 million sale to Henry was mainly a land transaction.
“It is a reminder of how much of the value of the Globe lies in the real estate and physical assets, and how little remains in the financial value of the operating company,” said Nicholas Retsinas, a senior lecturer in real estate at the Harvard Business School.
Experts have told the Herald that Henry could actually fetch $75 million for the property. He technically paid $38.4 million for the site — which is its assessed tax value — in the $70 million deal with The New York Times.
Newspaper industry experts said Henry’s vision seems to echo a national trend of consolidating what were once grand-scale, standalone news facilities into smaller, more modern shared office buildings.
“Most newspapers have cut staff quite substantially in the last seven to 10 years,” said Alan Mutter of the University of California at Berkeley. “They have these large buildings that are increasingly white elephants, so it makes sense for them to move into more compact and arguably more up-to-date headquarters.”
Henry told Boston Magazine in its March issue that the sale of the Globe property “will provide us with the ability to move into a smaller, more efficient and modern facility in the heart of the city. We believe that there is enough excess value there to fund very important investments in our long-term future, if the community supports development of the property.”
A Globe spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment yesterday.
Mark Jurkowitz, a former Globe reporter now at the Pew Research Center, said Henry’s comment to locate the paper “in the heart of the city” points to locations in Back Bay, downtown Boston or the Seaport.
Henry announced last month he had appointed himself publisher and that former Hill Holliday ad exec Michael Sheehan would be chief executive officer.
From today's Herald. I must admit that I have always hated that building, it seems somewhat pompous to me. However, 16 acres is a substantial site for redevelopment. Does anyone have an idea as to the zoning of the site and what could potentially be built there? What's down there for NIMBY's? IMO, there is quite an opportunity to build a signature gateway to the city type of development there.
