WEST LOOP — The Chicago Sun-Times and the Reader are moving to the booming West Loop, the newspaper's new owners said Thursday.
New owners of the legacy Chicago newspaper and alt-weekly plan to move the company's offices to 30 N. Racine Ave. in a building that was formerly part of Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Studios campus, said Izabela Miltko-Ivkovich, an acting spokeswoman for the new ownership group. The Sun-Times offices are currently located in the River North Point building at 350 N. Orleans in River North.
Columnist Robert Feder first reported the proposed move to Racine Avenue.
The newspaper's staff will be moving in before November, said Cory Zielke, another acting spokeswoman for the new ownership group. The company plans to lease 26,000 square feet of space in the 75,000-square-foot building, she said.
"I'm thinking it's going to be very soon, but we just bought it," Miltko-Ivkovich said of the "fast-paced" deal to buy the Sun-Times. Miltko-Ivkovich also serves as communications director for Service Employees International Union Local 1, one of the unions that comprise ST Acquisition Holdings.
Zielke declined to say how many employees currently work for the Sun-Times.
An investment group led by former Chicago Ald. Edwin Eisendrath that included a coalition of labor unions closed a deal to buy the newspaper Wednesday.
Visual production company Answers Media is currently located in the 30 N. Racine building. An Answers Media representative declined to answer questions about the Sun-Times move Thursday.
Answers Media leased 24,000 square feet on the third floor of the 30 N. Racine building in 2012, according to Crain's.
A Goodwill training center and store and software developer Basecamp are also located in the building.
The Sun-Times move follows several other companies who are moving to the bustling neighborhood, including McDonald's new corporate headquarters on the old Harpo campus, which will bring 2,000 new employees to the neighborhood by spring 2018. Google Chicago moved to the West Loop from River North in 2015.
