With a ribbon-cutting at their new headquarters in Doral, The Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald marked a new beginning on Wednesday.
“We’ve made the move from east to west in the county and are very excited about the new facility we have here. A lot of smiles on our employees’ faces,” said David Landsberg, the Miami Herald Media Company’s president and publisher.
Guests at the ceremony got special tours of the state-of-the-art newsroom and the printing facilities, where Harry Phelps has worked for 36 years.
“Well, it’s kind of a hard thing to say goodbye to a building we’ve been going to for such a long time, but to keep the Miami Herald going and to run a business, it was good to know that the company decided to rebuild and move us over here and start again,” said Phelps.
Herald employees made the move from downtown Miami to Doral in May. The building in Doral, at 3511 NE 91st Ave., once housed the U.S. Southern Command.
In 2011 the Miami Herald’s parent company, the McClatchy Company, sold the newspaper’s iconic property off of Biscayne Bay for $236 million to the Genting Group, which may build a luxury hotel and condominiums on the site.
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The mayor of Doral said the move out west means opportunity for his city.
“I think it’s amazing, having this company in our city, and (it) also represents new jobs,” Doral Mayor Luigi Boria said.
The new headquarters holds about 700 employees inside. Many say that they do miss the old building in downtown Miami, but some employees say that the $50 million investment allows them to do their job more efficiently.
“We plan to save a lot of money here. Especially in power,” Phelps said.
Jose Iglesias has been with the Miami Herald for 22 years.
“It’s a step in the right direction because we’re able to start fresh,” he said. “New technologies, we have less people, the old building was starting to feel just like that – real old.”
The Miami Herald Media Co. says the changes will allow them to keep evolving and innovating, just as it has for the past 110 years.
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Photo Credit: NBC 6 South Florida