Daily Hampshire Gazette to move headquarters, will remain in Northampton

By SCOTT MERZBACH

Staff Writer

Published: 10-31-2022 6:43 PM

NORTHAMPTON — When 2023 begins, the Daily Hampshire Gazette will operate from a new location for the first time in more than 47 years.

The company’s move to a 7,000-square-foot building at 23 Service Center Road, only a few hundred yards from the 115 Conz St. headquarters where it has been based since October 1975, means that the Gazette will continue to call home the city where its first paper was printed in 1786.

Gazette Publisher Shawn Palmer announced the move and the lease for the new building on Monday, noting that only about one-quarter of the current site is being used by the newspaper.

Despite serving the company well since moving from 16 Armory St., the Conz Street building, which originally opened as a First National Supermarket, is warehouse size and has production space that is no longer needed, Palmer said.

“This move positions the Gazette well for the future,” Palmer said. “By rightsizing to a smaller space we are eliminating the distractions that come from owning and maintaining a large building that we don’t need.”

Jack Fortier, the landlord for the Service Center Road site and other contiguous properties, said he is excited to have the Gazette as the next tenant at the location that, until two weeks ago, had been used as the Western Regional Health Office for the state’s Department of Public Health. The office occupied the site for 37 years.

“I’m looking forward to a very long relationship with the Gazette,” Fortier said.

Fortier said the state agency has been moving to a more hybrid format for its offices, and ending leases with private companies, with those employees who had been in Northampton now working from the Western Massachusetts Hospital in Westfield.

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The Gazette’s current 45,000-square-foot building, on 3.57 acres of land, was sold for $3 million in April to Mansour Ghalibaf, who runs the Fairfield Inn at 115A Conz St. and the Hotel Northampton at 36 King St.

The Gazette moved to the former supermarket just before the American Bicentennial year from the Armory Street building where it had been based since November 1927.

“We can now focus our energy and resources on our core mission, serving our readers and advertisers in Hampshire County,” Palmer said.

The new building for the Gazette provides visibility to Pleasant Street, a main gateway to the city, and is a well-maintained, family-owned building, Palmer said. The move of the Gazette’s office will begin in mid-December.

“We are committed to Hampshire County and are delighted to be staying in Northampton,” Palmer said.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.]]>