The Ogden Publishing Corp., owner of the Standard-Examiner newspaper, has exercised an option to buy 15 acres of Defense Depot Ogden for a new printing plant.
Standard-Examiner Publisher Scott Trundle said the new production facility should be operating by the summer of 1999.The newspaper had an option on two different sites at DDO, which was ordered shut down by the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission in 1995 along with several other military installations.
In exchange for the new site, the city will get the Standard-Examiner's current downtown property.
Ogden Mayor Glenn Mecham said the city has already talked to developers interested in turning the old 4.6-acre site into retail and office space.
"There is credible discussion about the possibility of retail on street-level with residential (space) above," Mecham said. "That has great appeal to me for the downtown area in general."
Trundle expects to have construction drawings done by the end of January, with work on the $20 million, 80,000- to 100,000-square-foot plant under way by next April.
The new building is necessary to accommodate a new, $8 million to $10 million press and anticipated growth in the newspaper's packaging-handling department.