LIMA — After evaluating all options, The Lima News decided it didn’t need to relocate its business operations after all. One of Allen County’s oldest and most respected businesses decided there’s no place like home and is just looking for the right neighbors.
The newspaper will remain at 3515 Elida Road, Lima, its home since 1996. It intends to reconfigure the 52,000 square foot building to accommodate more than 50 Lima News employees in the advertising, newsroom and circulation departments while making room for tenants for light manufacturing/warehousing and office/retail space.
“Our home on Elida Road is really in a terrific location, and once we decided to open it up to other tenants, both on the manufacturing/warehousing side and on the office/retail side, it just made sense for The Lima News to remain as one of the anchor tenants,” said Doug Olsson, publisher of The Lima News and a vice president with the paper’s owner, AIM Media Midwest.
Interested business leaders can tour the facility during an open house from 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday. Wine and cheese will be served.
The Allen County Port Authority and Allen Economic Development Group will have staff on hand to explain options for financing moves to the facility and saving companies money. Representatives from the Small Business Center at Superior Credit Union can discuss commercial financing and Small Business Administration loans. Realtor Greg Butcher, of Superior Plus Realtors, will also be on hand.
The Lima News found itself with more space than it needed in June 2017, when its printing press sustained heavy damage while printing the paper. The newspaper is now printed outside Lima and transported back to the region for distribution each morning.
That leaves approximately 20,000 square feet of space in the rear of the building, complete with 35-foot ceilings and loading docks. The space is ideal for warehousing or light manufacturing, Olsson said.
The front of the building offers significant square footage for retail or office space. With three entries into the front of the building, the open space can be broken up as tenants need. State Route 309, which runs in front of the building, sees 40,000 vehicles a day pass by the building. Ample parking is available for any future tenant.
The decision to remain on Elida Road ends the planned return to downtown Lima. In May 2018, the newspaper announced it would move downtown into the renovated First National Bank and Trust Building, 43 Town Square, if it found a buyer for the existing building.
“We remain excited about the buzz occurring in downtown Lima, and while we won’t be locating our business operations there, we continue to view the revitalization efforts as necessary and critical to the health of our region,” Olsson said.
