News sells property to finance severance

The Deseret News sold downtown property to a real-estate arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Friday, earning money that will be used for severances of 35 newspaper employees who are going to be laid off in coming weeks.

The property is located on Regent Street and Main Street between 100 South and 200 South. The newspaper made a little more than $3 million on the sale, News publisher Jim Wall said.

The buildings included are the former Newspaper Agency Corp. printing-press buildings on Regent Street, NAC offices located in what has been traditionally called the "Mr. Mac Building" at 135 S. Main, and the NAC "Drivers Lounge" near Regent Street and 200 South.

The News sold the property to Suburban Land Reserve, part of Property Reserve Inc., the LDS Church's real-estate arm that is developing the mixed-use City Creek Center.

"We're going to use a good deal of the proceeds to help our employee severance package," Wall said.

On Wednesday, the News Board of Directors approved the cutting of up to 35 employees to reduce costs. News Editor Joe Cannon, in announcing the cuts to staff Thursday, said revenue has decreased by 32 percent, mostly due to decreased classified-advertising sales.

The employees who volunteer to leave or who are laid off will get three weeks of salary plus 1 1/2 weeks of salary for each year of service, and any remaining vacation time they have accrued.

The LDS Church has not publicly announced what it plans to do with the Regent Street property, which has been identified by a committee of city and business leaders as a potential Broadway-style theater. If the property does not become a Broadway-style theater, a study for the Downtown Alliance recommended the property as a site for a possible black-box theater.

Spokesmen for Suburban Land Reserve and the LDS Church declined to comment Friday on whether the church will develop the property, develop it in conjunction with a development partner or sell it to a developer.

Tom King of Suburban Land Reserve would not comment on the deal. He said he would send the Deseret News' questions to LDS Church public-relations professionals, but they never called the newspaper for the story. The News tried a handful of other LDS Church real-estate and public-relations officials, but they were either unable to comment or did not return calls.

The News had partially owned the Regent Street and Main Street properties for decades, in partnership with the Salt Lake Tribune. In November of last year, the News obtained all of the property in a real-estate and cash swap with the Tribune. As part of the deal, the Tribune obtained property on Gale Street, about 9 acres on 340 West between 500 South and 600 South. The Gale Street property also consisted of buildings for a printing press and mailroom.

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