Newspaper Signs Deal To Buy Land Near Park For Office

By Jeffrey Mize, Columbian Staff Writer

The Columbian has signed a deal to buy six acres south of Esther Short Park in downtown Vancouver, providing the newspaper with room to construct new offices and the city with land to build its hotel-convention center project. The agreement with Christensen Family Properties was signed Monday. Purchase price was about $5 million.

Publisher Scott Campbell said he would like to find a partner and build a four-story building on the site, with commercial offices occupying the top two floors. If not, the newspaper will erect a two-story building providing 60,000 to 75,000 square feet of space.

The Columbian, downtown's largest private employer with about 350 people on the payroll, has outgrown its location at 701 W. Eighth St., the newspaper's home since 1955. The sale isn't expected to close for another six months. In the meantime, the site will be examined for environmental hazards.

"I don't think there's anything out there that's potentially a big problem," Campbell said Tuesday.

City officials approached Campbell earlier this year about buying most of the property south of Esther Short Park, in part as a way to keep The Columbian and its workforce downtown.

Christensen Family Properties didn't want to sell only a portion of its holdings, and the city no longer needed the entire parcel after abandoning plans to build a 6,500-seat events center.

Vancouver proposes to build a seven-story convention center-hotel on the southwest corner of Sixth and Columbia streets for about $50 million.

Doug Ness, The Columbian's finance director, said the size of the parcel to be sold to the city and the price have yet to be negotiated. Vancouver faces an impending deadline to get construction under way on the convention center-hotel.

If the city doesn't break ground by the end of 2003 it will forfeit a state sales tax credit worth more than $700,000 a year, plus another sales tax credit funneled through Clark County worth $500,000 a year.

Office Construction

Campbell said he doesn't have a set schedule to begin construction. His best guess would be in two to three years.

"It really depends on the economy and how we are doing with getting our earnings where we want them," he said.

"I'm really kind of antsy to do this project," he added. "I don't want to just let the land sit. But I'm also conservative fiscally."

Campbell has a multistage plan for the newspaper's future. The first step is building a new office on the southeast corner of Sixth and Esther streets. The newsroom, advertising department and other administrative operations would move to the building, freeing up room at the current site for new advertising inserting equipment.

Somewhere on the seven- to eight-year horizon, The Columbian wants to build a production plant next to the new building, possibly at the Columbia Credit Union's current location on the southwest corner of Sixth and Esther streets.

Campbell has discussed a plant that would include a giant glass wall so people could watch the newspaper's daily production.

Once both buildings are complete, the newspaper would sell or redevelop its current location.

Alternate Option

The Columbian still has the option of building at the former Jantzen garment factory on Grand Boulevard. The newspaper purchased the site in June 1999, with the idea that it could relocate to 13 acres along state Highway 14. The Nordic Group operated a garment operation there after Jantzen shut down, but it filed for bankruptcy in January 2000. Since then, the building has seen little use.

The Columbian's architect, Dario DiMare of Southborough, Mass., will consider how an office building could be placed on the new location south of Esther Short Park.

"We know developing the downtown site is going to be more expensive than the Nordic site," Campbell said. "But I just feel downtown is a good place for The Columbian."

Ness said the newspaper probably would try to sell the Jantzen-Nordic property once the pending land sale closes.