Press building near completion, 7/14/2005
By Dan Margolies, The Kansas City Star
The Kansas City Star’s new press facility has begun trial press runs in anticipation of the plant’s official opening next year.
Much of the interior of the massive, $199 million, glass-enclosed plant has been completed, and three of its four presses have been installed. The facility, which will eventually house all of The Star’s printing operations and its 550 print workers, is expected to be fully operational in May 2006.
At that time, The Star will stop using its 40-year-old presses, which are housed in The Star’s historic headquarters at 1729 Grand Blvd. The old machinery there will be sold for scrap and the resulting space eventually will be converted to offices for T he Star’s news, advertising and administrative employees, currently housed in the main building.
“We’re going from 1960s technology to a state-of-the-art printing facility,” said Mac Tully, president and publisher of The Star. “When we throw the switch to go live, we’re going to be operating with the newest plant in the world.
“That’s not only exciting for the newspaper, that’s exciting for all of Kansas City. In a lot of respects, the newspaper and the city are joined at the hip, and this transformation for us will reflect well for the entire area.”
Also this week, a storage building immediately north of The Star’s headquarters will be torn down. Another storage building immediately north of that structure will be razed by the end of the month. The two buildings are being demolished to make way for more parking.
Ground breaking for the new press pavilion, which is immediately northeast of The Star’s headquarters, took place in May 2003. The building takes up two city blocks and occupies more than 420,000 square feet of space, or the equivalent of almost 10 acres of land. It sits just south of the downtown loop, overlooking the site of the planned downtown arena and entertainment district to the northwest.
The building’s sloping roof ascends to the equivalent of eight stories on the building’s north end. At nearly 378 feet, the area containing the presses is longer than a football field.
Curbs and sidewalks surrounding the press pavilion have been completed. In the fall, trees and bushes will be planted around the facility’s perimeter. A museum display about The Star and the newspaper industry is planned for the lobby.
Although the facility won’t be fully operational for 10 months, The Star expects to begin using the new plant’s packaging equipment to insert the Sunday comics and other sections in the next few weeks.
“As soon as we get a partial occupancy permit from the city, we’ll do our inserting operations there from now on,” said project manager Randy Waters, vice president of production for the newspaper.
The new presses will give the newspaper printing capabilities it currently does not have, such as the ability to produce 40 four-color pages. The newspaper will undergo a top-to-bottom redesign in conjunction with the presses’ startup, including a reconfiguration of the paper’s width and length.
Tully said the paper would be “brighter, cleaner, crisper than ever before” once the new presses are fully operational.
“We’re going to have a ton more color capacity. And just as exciting, which may be a little bit more invisible to our readers, is our zoning and targeting abilities will be significantly enhanced,” he said. “We’ll be able to put more specific products in the hands of people who need, want and desire them rather than what we do now, which is mass production products.”
The newspaper sought and received city approval for a 10-year, $12.8 million property tax abatement on the press facility. The Star is to pay full property taxes on the facility after 10 years.
First glance
■ Three of the four presses have been installed in the press pavilion for The Kansas City Star, which has begun trial runs.
■ The $199 million plant is scheduled to be fully operational by May 2006.
© 2005 Kansas City Star and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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