New Herald Headquarters Officially Opens With Ribbon Cutting
DORAL (CBSMiami) -- After fifty years at its iconic Biscayne Bay location in downtown Miami, CBS4 News partner The Miami Herald officially opened its new headquarters in Doral.
Dozens of media executives, journalists, community leaders and residents gathered for the official ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday morning at its location in the 3300 block of NW 91st Avenue.
Miami Herald Media Co. president and publisher David Landsberg said despite its new location, the journalism is the same.
"I really believe the tradition of the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald is in the people, but the physical building and plant is helping us do our job with excellence," said Landsberg.
The Miami Herald's new media headquarters are housed in a two-story, 160,000-square-foot building that served as the former center for the U.S. Southern Command, and its new 119,000-square-foot custom-built printing plant is on land purchased next door and houses its three original printing presses that weigh more than a million pounds each.
The press foundation is three feet of solid concrete, filled with rebar, 30 feet wide and 400 feet long. To make the press pad, 55 cement trucks poured for six consecutive hours. The Herald is the only major city newspaper in the last four years to build a printing plant.
The plant prints the daily Herald and el Nuevo Herald, along with editions of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Daily News, among a total of 23 publications.
The new headquarters is roughly one-third the size of the Herald's previous home, which will translate to a 50 percent savings in energy costs, according to The Herald.
Put simply, the company — which has gone through significant downsizing over the last decade — doesn't need all that space anymore. It signed a 15-year lease in Doral, with options to stay longer.
Doral has become an economic, media and government hub. It's home to Carnival Cruise Lines, Ryder, Perry Ellis International, CBS4 News, Univision 23, Miami-Dade County Police, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Southern Command.
Back east, the Biscayne Bay location is expected to be leveled soon.
(©2013 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald contributed material for this report.)
