Friday, May 27, 2011

Chuck Strouse on Miami Herald building sale



The McClatchy Co. announced this morning that it has sold one of Miami's most iconic buildings to a Malaysian resort and gambling company.

The company's chairman, Gary Pruitt, said it was no longer the era for a newspaper to be located on the bay. That says something about daily newspapers.

The good news: Herald reporters get to stay in 1 Herald Plaza for two years rent-free.

The bad news: They are going to knock down the building where I and thousands of Miamians worked for years. This must be what it feels like when your parents sell the house and tell you it's time to move out.

Scratch that: That's EXACTLY what it feels like.

The price: $236 million.

The buyer: Genting Malysia Berhad, or actually a subsidiary of that company.

News has been reported from that building for years. It was Herald founder John S. Knight's pride and headquarters of one of the nation's largest newspaper companies, Knight-Ridder, for years.

People hid under desks there when Hurricane Andrew went through in 1992. They held up there when riots burned down the town in the 1980s and 1990s. Then there was that unfortunate incident involving my onetime source, former Miami commissioner Arthur Teele.

I'll miss 1 Herald Plaza. I spent a chunk of my life there. And I am not alone.

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