Apr. 13—The rapidly evolving world of news has pulled the Albuquerque Journal in many new directions in recent years, and the Lang family that owns the paper is announcing another new development this week: putting the Journal campus up for sale.
The Journal’s mission to deliver reliable, comprehensive local news remains the same.
Selling the Journal campus is a natural move, both business- and news-wise, said publisher Bill Lang. The newspaper’s operations utilize only about 20% of the roughly 300,000-square-foot campus located at 7777 Jefferson NE, he said, so it’s time for the Journal to adapt to a different, better-suited space.
“Repurposing is probably a better sense of what we’re doing with it because we’re taking our asset and making it liquid and then using that so that so we can continue on strongly,” he said.
A move gives the organization the opportunity to invest in a new headquarters with top-quality audio, video and digital capabilities, aligning with the slew of podcasts the Journal now puts out on daily and monthly bases.
News organizations moving away from large, staple buildings is a national trend as the industry continues to downsize. Many parts of New Mexico have seen a shrinking number of local news outlets and journalists in the past few decades.
However, Lang reaffirmed his commitment to providing the state with quality, local journalism through the Journal. The Lang family is coming up on 100 years of ownership of the Albuquerque Journal next year.
“This is to continue on our mission to be the leading newspaper in New Mexico,” Lang said.
As for the property, NAI SunVista is still hammering out a definitive price for the 287,000-square-foot property sitting on 27.88 acres, according to partner DJ Brigman. The Langs declined to comment on the price, deferring to Brigman, who said the commercial real estate brokerage will divulge the price to serious buyers.
The campus includes about 117,000 square feet of office space, more than 140,000 square feet of industrial space — with one area having an over 40-foot clear height — rail access, a fleet service area, a physical plant with a chiller system and a full-service cafeteria. An existing landscaping service for the Journal Center maintains the lush green landscape, which the new owners will pay via a pro rata share.
The campus can be used in many different ways, Brigman said, from the film studios already utilizing the space, to charter schools, to data centers, to industrial operations.
It’s also tucked pretty centrally in the metro area, he said. With increased populations on the West Side, Journal Center is easily accessible from many parts of town, whether it’s Rio Rancho or Downtown.
“This is an iconic property,” Brigman said.
Lang described the Journal Center as “one of the premiere developments in the state.”
“There’s lots of potential here,” Lang said.
Pepper Lang, president of Journal Center Corp., touted the central location of the campus, as well as its easy access to public transportation and walking and biking trails. He reiterated Brigman’s thoughts about the property being good for many uses, including especially for film studios or production companies.
“This building was built to last,” he added.
Brigman pointed out that the Journal Center scene has been on the up in recent years, with multiple apartment complexes and many restaurants in the area.
“At one point in time, this was more of a daytime opportunity for those types of users, and now it’s transitioning into a morning, day and night-type of location,” he said.
The Journal Center presence started in the late ’70s when the Lang family got into real estate, said Lowell A. Hare, chair and CEO of Journal Center Corp. Moving from a Downtown office to the Journal campus in the ’80s happened in two phases — the production building was completed in ’82 and the administrative building in ’86 — at a cost of more than $50 million, Hare said.
“When completed, the new home of the Albuquerque Journal was the most modern newspaper facility in the United States,” he said. “I mean, we had people coming in from everywhere, looking at our buildings. There was no newspaper facility close to what we had in Albuquerque.”
Forty years later, the Journal Center campus has become the longest home for the Albuquerque Journal’s operations.
The news outlet outsourced printing operations about five years ago. The presses that once shook the complex still sit in a massive warehouse facility on the campus, though the owners plan to remove them.
The rest of the campus infrastructure will stay as-is, preferably, for the sale, Hare said, though he added ownership could also explore redeveloping the campus as an alternative.
“We’ve got to get as efficient as we can to keep the newspaper alive because that’s our core. The Journal Center’s fabulous, but there would have been no Journal Center without the Albuquerque Journal.”
The sale could take anywhere from a year to a year-and-a-half, so Journal Center will continue welcoming talent scouts, as the property’s diverse offerings are often leased out for film operations.
Megan Gleason is a business editor for the Albuquerque Journal. She also covers energy, utilities and government. You can reach her at mgleason@abqjournal.com.