Daily Herald plans two-block move to new office
Paddock Publications Inc., owner of the Daily Herald, is moving to new offices this spring, company executives announced Tuesday.
The employee-owned company, now headquartered in a five-story office center at 155 E. Algonquin Road in Arlington Heights, is moving two blocks west to 95 W. Algonquin Road to occupy smaller space in a six-story brown brick building adjacent to Hilton's DoubleTree Hotel in Arlington Heights.
The plan to "right-size" the office space was announced in December 2016 when the company put its current office center up for sale.
"The corporate office environment has been transformed by digital technology, and there is less need for in-the-office accommodations," Publisher & CEO Douglas K. Ray and President & COO Scott T. Stone said in a joint memorandum Tuesday. "This is the case for newspapers, in particular, as we have seen Chicago's downtown metros and newspapers across the country sell their real estate and move their headquarters into smaller buildings.
"Like our peers, we believe our financial resources should be directed at innovation through journalism and content improvement, product diversification and marketing to the needs of new and existing customers."
The 147-year-old newspaper company's history in Arlington Heights dates back decades, and company executives said they made a priority of keeping the corporate headquarters in town.
Before the Daily Herald's move to 155 E. Algonquin in 1996, the newsroom, press and circulation departments had been located on Campbell Street in the village's downtown for most of the 20th century.
"Our roots in Arlington Heights run deep," Ray and Stone's memo said, "and our intention was to keep our corporate headquarters in the village."
As part of the move, the paper's current office center has been purchased by Bradford Allen, a Chicago-based real estate company that has been acquiring parcels at the south end of Arlington Heights.
Village officials have been eyeing that section of town for redevelopment at least since 2015, when a comprehensive plan called for revitalizing and creating an identity for main corridors in the village, including Arlington Heights Road.
About a year ago, village trustees adopted the 50-page South Arlington Heights Road Corridor Plan, which suggests liberalizing zoning restrictions to facilitate mixed-use developments in the area, making the area more pedestrian-friendly and improving aesthetics.
Terms of the sale, which closed on Tuesday, were not released.
The company finalized the lease for the new location at the same time.
The move is expected to take place in late April or early May, although a specific move-in date has yet to be determined.
• Daily Herald staff writer Christopher Placek contributed to this report.