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Christchurch Press has publicly said it is considering selling its historic Cathedral Square building in favour of larger premises to help fund a new plant and printing press.
The Press experienced publishing problems in April when a breakdown meant it failed to print some editions, but an upgrade has been on the cards for some time.The Christchurch Press Company, owned by New Zealand’s Fairfax Media has operated out of its current premises for almost a century, having opened in Cathedral Square in 1909. Its central Christchurch property, which was purpose built between 1907 and 1909 now includes Press Lane and several smaller buildings facing Gloucester Street.
The property has an Historic Places Trust category 1 rating.
CPC general manager, Chris Jagusch says that while they were considering selling the whole property, they may end up splitting it up to house some departments such as editorial and advertising.
The preferred option was to sell the property and lease back about half the space to help fund a new printing press. The property, however, is not currently for sale and any move was at least 18 months away, and depended on Fairfax approval and finding a suitable printing site.
