Cape Town's Newspaper House in new hands

After many months of consultation - and speculation - Newspaper House has been sold to property development and investment company Ingenuity Property Investments Limited.

Independant Newspapers general manager Ishmet Davidson shakes hands with the new owner of the building, Arnold Maresky.

The historic building is home to Independent Newspapers Cape's stable of print titles, including Weekend Argus, the Cape Argus, the Cape Times and the community papers, as well as IOL (Independent Online).

The decision to sell follows exhaustive consultations since the beginning of the year on the future of the building, after the company made the decision to outsource the printing operation. Moving the presses out left much of the building vacant - instead of more than 1 300 people, the staff complement is now down to about 300.

"Options that were considered included moving the entire operation to the southern suburbs or even Century City. However, after careful consideration and taking into account the interests of our employees, company, shareholders and other stakeholders, we have come to what we believe is an elegant solution for the future of Newspaper House," says Independent Cape general manager Ishmet Davidson.

"Selling the property to Ingenuity is by far the best option. We were bound by agreements to keep the deal confidential until all the suspensive conditions had been fulfilled, which took place earlier this week."

Davidson says the sale was a difficult decision that met with resistance because of the understandable sentiment staff felt towards the building and its history.

Arnold Maresky, chief executive of Ingenuity Property Investments Limited, says the acquisition of Newspaper House is in line with the company's philosophy of investing in strategic properties in the Western Cape, particularly in Cape Town.

"This is a golden opportunity for improving our portfolio and contributing to the upgrade of a city heritage building in a strategic position. The revamp will be carried out as part of our R500 million development pipeline, which includes a number of other CBD buildings, such as our joint venture with Redefine on the site of the old Currie and Farber buildings on the Foreshore."

Maresky says plans for Newspaper House include modernising all the facilities and creating a pedestrian link between Greenmarket Square and the Mandela Rhodes complex. The basement through to the third floor will be redeveloped for parking, high-end retail, a supermarket and office space, and the ground floor will be extensively revamped to create a more modern look and feel.

Transfer is expected to take place on December 15 or as close to that date as possible. Independent's Cape Town operation will stay on as tenants in the building and will be consolidated on the top floors.

"Once the work is complete, and Newspaper House is looking magnificent, I'm sure we will agree the project was well worthwhile," says Davidson.

The transaction was negotiated by Ryan Joffe of the Alliance Group.

Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)

Posted at 08:26AM Nov 21, 2011 by Editor in Commercial  |  Comments[2]