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Tribune Co. is mulling options for the Tribune Tower in Chicago, as well as for buildings it owns in Los Angeles. (M. SPENCER GREEN/ASSOCIATED PRESS/FILE 2007) |
Tribune looks to its real estate as money source
CHICAGO - Tribune Co. said it is exploring options for the headquarters buildings of its two biggest newspapers, the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune.
The company, taken private by billionaire Sam Zell in December, plans to maintain stakes in the Tribune Tower in Chicago and Times Mirror Square in Los Angeles, the Tribune Co. said yesterday in a statement.
Tribune is selling assets to raise cash for the company, which has $13 billion in debt. It is also pursuing the sale of the Chicago Cubs baseball team and last month sold a 97 percent stake in Long Island, N.Y.-based Newsday in a deal valuing the newspaper at $632 million.
"While a near-term transaction is possible, we'll be focusing on opportunities that allow for some level of ongoing occupancy in both buildings for the mid-term (defined as five years), for farther out (15 years), and beyond," Zell said in an e-mail to employees.
Chicago-based Tribune said it has issued requests for proposals to several real estate firms to help it identify what to do with the properties, including "occupancy strategies" and "development opportunities."
Zell, who paid $8.3 billion for Tribune, said on a June 5 conference call he plans to save money by cutting 500 pages a week from the company's newspapers. The company is also eliminating jobs.
The neo-Gothic Tribune Tower by the Chicago River on Michigan Avenue has 940,000 square feet of usable space.
Times Mirror Square is a five-building complex with 750,000 square feet of usable space.
Tribune reported May 8 that first-quarter profit at the publishing division fell 74 percent as ad sales continued to decline, led by a 27 percent drop in classified revenue.
The company reported a profit of $1.82 billion, buoyed by a $1.86 billion tax gain and higher income from its television stations. Sales fell 8 percent to $1.1 billion.
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