Tampa Bay Times sells St. Pete printing plant for $21 million
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Aug 31, 2021

The Tampa Bay Times has sold its St. Petersburg printing plant to a hedge fund — and plans to use most of the proceeds to pay off a loan from some of the region's wealthiest executives and philanthropists.

The Times on Tuesday announced the sale of the 27-acre printing plant on 34th Street North to Twenty Lake, the commercial real estate arm of hedge fund Alden Global Capital. The newspaper, which reduced its print edition circulation to Wednesdays and Sundays in May 2020, outsourced its printing to a Lakeland printing facility owned by media giant Gannett Co. in early 2021.

The Times shuttered the printing plant earlier this year, cutting 150 jobs and asking remaining employees to take a 10% pay cut.

Conan Gallaty, president of Times Publishing Co., told his own paper that the majority of the proceeds from the sale will pay off a $15 million loan from FBN Partners. Some of the proceeds will go toward pension contributions.

“This is a good result and puts the Times on solid footing as we move toward a more digital future,” Gallaty said in a statement.

FBN Partners includes Tampa Bay Lighting owner Jeff Vinik, BluePearl Veterinary Partners CEO and Ybor City developer Darryl Shaw, philanthropist and developer Dr. Kiran Patel, philanthropist Frank Morsani and his wife, Carol and Times Chairman Paul Tash.

FBN provided the loan to the Times to refinance debt from Crystal Financial, a Boston-based lender of last resort that makes loans to businesses that don't meet the qualifying criteria for traditional financing.

Rick Brugge, Mike Davis, Rick Colon and Dominic Montazemi, with support from Zach Eicholtz, from Cushman & Wakefield represented the Times in the deal.