The Monterey County Herald building has been sold to the University Corporation at Monterey Bay for $5.7 million, CSU Monterey Bay officials say.
"The purchase went before the University Corporation board last week and they approved it," says James Tinney, a CSUMB spokesman.
The University Corporation, a nonprofit that administers grant raising, business development and other university needs, has been eyeing the Herald building since last year. The building became available last May, and University Corporation officials took a tour of it in November.
The building, on 8 Upper Ragsdale Drive in Ryan Ranch, was previously listed at $7.25 million.
“The University Corporation’s purchase of the Herald building in Ryan Ranch Office Park will open up a number of possibilities for us,” CSUMB President Eduardo Ochoa says in a statement.
“As a result of the continued growth of our university, we are facing a shortage of space, particularly for some of our research activities," he says. "This facility—which is located close to our campus—will address those needs. In addition, we will be able to better serve the continuing education needs of Monterey Peninsula professionals.”
Tinney says there are no plans to move undergraduate students to the new location.
The sale comes in the midst of massive change for the Herald. In February, long-time editor Royal Calkins left the paper, and was replaced by Santa Cruz Sentinel Editor Don Miller, who now manages both newspapers. It was part of what was described as a "reorganization plan" of the Digital First Media-owned papers. This month—after 21 years—veteran reporter Mac McDonald left the paper, after offering to resign if the paper would keep one of the copyeditor positions it was axing.
The newspaper has been operating out of Ryan Ranch since 1988, after moving from downtown Monterey. According to the Herald’s website, staff will be relocated to a new, yet-to-be-determined office. Printing is done off site.
(1) comment
OH THE IRONY. MIIS bought the old Herald building, along with who knows how many other downtown Monterey buildings and houses. Real estate acquisition seems to be the main function of our local institutions, (inc. CHOMP).
Now CSUMB, indebting students up to their eyeballs and running charity balls for tuition assistance for their "vision" student population, first generation Latina/os, is spending millions of foundation funds to increase their real estate holdings while poor-mouthing their ability to clear ruined barracks from the acres of Fort Ord they already own.
They can barely staff the foundation funded Library, the site of several student protests over hours of operation, rotate temp workers at a miserable $15 an hour part time to avoid union wages and benefits, and brag about providing "jobs" for the community.
Their intern programs have downward pressure on local wages to the degree that transient Army wives once did when Fort Ord was a training base. Dozens of local non-profits exploit them for work that should be well paying permanent jobs that would provide continuity to their programs.
The wonderful, caring faculty is so overworked they barely have any time to take their knowledge out to the community where it might do some good, and students graduate barely able to create an English sentence that doesn't contain the word, "Awesome."
Not.
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