Gannett, the newspaper giant that owns USA Today and a host of local publications, is moving its headquarters from its longtime home of McLean, Virginia, to New York City.
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The company is vacating its 176K SF at Valo Park, where it has been located since 2001, and putting it up for sublease, Gannett revealed in its fourth-quarter filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“The Company has decided to relocate its corporate headquarters to its executive offices located in New York, New York and exit, cease use and continue to seek subleases for its McLean facility,” the filing says.
Gannett’s lease in McLean expires in 2030. FFXnow first reported the news.
In 2021, Gannett inked a 24K SF sublease in Midtown Manhattan that expires in 2031. The SEC filing says that space will serve as its corporate headquarters as of March 31.
The company is relocating the USA Today newsroom from McLean to the D.C. bureau, a Gannett spokesperson told Bisnow.
“We’re embracing our flexible working model by investing more in our people and technology — rather than real estate,” a Gannett spokesperson said in a statement to Bisnow. “We remain firmly committed to the sustainable future of journalism as we adapt to a progressively digital world.”
Gannett expects it will incur $45M in impairment charges during the first quarter related to the “McLean operating lease right-of-use asset and the associated leasehold improvements,” it reported in the SEC filing.
Tamares Group owns the two-building, 822K SF property at 7950 Jones Branch Drive in McLean, which it purchased in 2015 for $270M.
The property was built for Gannett. The company retained Hines in 1997 to build out a 25-acre headquarters campus, which was completed in 2001.
Software company Appian announced it would take 200K SF at Valo Park for a headquarters relocation in 2018. Identity verification technology company Pangiam announced it would relocate its headquarters to the property in September 2022, taking 20K SF. Stream Realty took over leasing and management in May 2022.
