The Greenville News building at 305 S. Main St., across from the Peace Center, may be demolished once the property is sold, according to CBRE, the company listing the property.
There has been a lot of speculation since Gannett announced plans to sell the building in July 2012, with several city officials saying it would be a great place for a downtown convention center.
Initially, Gannett was going to only list the building for sale and keep the print operations at that location, said Doug Webster with CBRE. But after preliminary research, that was determined to be impractical.
Earlier this month, The Greenville News reported that its parent company, Gannett, reached an agreement with Halifax Media Group to move printing of The Greenville News and the Asheville Citizen-Times from Greenville to Halifax printing facilities in Spartanburg and Gastonia, N.C., effective April 2014.
Once CBRE puts together the marketing package, they expect to start qualifying developers for the four-acre site and asking for proposals. “We hope to have the building under contract and closed by the end of 2014,” said Webster. No listing price has been set, as CBRE is going to send it out for bid and “see what the market will bear.” Both Webster, a senior associate at CBRE, and Charles Gouch, first vice president at CBRE, will handle the listing.
It will be up to the developer chosen whether to tear down the building or not, but Webster said it would be hard to revitalize the space and expects the building to be razed and turned into a mixed-use, multistory facility.
Mayor Knox White said the process has just started and he does not know what will happen, but he hopes that a buyer “would favor a full mixed-use project on the site.”
