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By Dennis Palmer/ Publisher The Greenville Advocate

The Greenville Advocate has listed its building located at 103 Hickory Street for sale. The building consists of 4,900 square feet of office space and 1,500 square foot warehouse. 

The Advocate has contracted with BellCornerstone, a nationwide commercial real estate firm that specializes in marketing newspaper facilities that no longer need large on-site production space. That is due to current typesetting and pagination by computers and printing in centralized regional printing plants. Additionally, local realtor Glenn Cooper with First Realty of Greenville, Inc. is assisting Bell Cornerstone as a local representative in the marketing and sale of the building. 

The Advocate building formerly housed a press and mailing operation, now prints its newspapers at a regional printing plant in Clanton owned by Tuscaloosa-based Boone Newspapers, Inc., owner of The Advocate. 

BellCornerstone has good connections to regional and national real estate investors and has worked with media companies on down-sizing real estate holdings. Currently, they are working with Gannett, a major national media company with holdings in Tuscaloosa and Montgomery. 

“When the pandemic set in last year and affected retailing and business in general, we sought efficiencies to reduce costs while continuing to meet our community commitments,” said Advocate Publisher Dennis Palmer. “The building we occupy now is nearly 6,500 square feet, which is much more square footage than we need to produce the products we do, thus, like any business or homeowner, we seek to downsize to fit our needs.”

Palmer said the newspaper wants to stay downtown. That might come in an opportunity to lease a portion of its current location from the new owner or elsewhere in area. 

“Downtown is the heart of Greenville and we certainly want to keep our newspaper here for its convenience to our customers and because it is close to all government operations for quick access to meetings and downtown events,” Palmer said. “We will continue to meet our obligations to our community by being the best, most reliable source for news, information about and for Greenville and Butler County while providing advertising in print, digital and digital services, meeting that obligation through a mix of print and digital reporting and delivery.”