Building sold, but Leader-post to stay put

The Regina Leader-post has no plans to depart its current building despite a recent sale.

The aptly named 1964 Park Street Holdings is the new owner of the property at that same address, after a sale closed on July 23. The Leader-post offices — including the newsroom — will remain in the building as a tenant for the foreseeable future, according to an email sent to staff.

Regina’s SCR Holdings is an investor in 1964 Park Street Holdings, and the developer and property manager. SCR director and part-owner Bill Babey said the company has a stake in more than a dozen properties and has done work on the Civic Centre in Moose Jaw. He said he has been working on a deal with the Leader-post’s parent company, Postmedia, for about a year and a half.

He told the Leader-post the Park Street building will soon get a makeover.

“We want to make it look newer. We’re going to redo the flooring and the walls and ceilings.”

He said the exterior may even get some updates to make it look more modern and colourful.

Apart from the Leader-post, Associated Engineering is the lone current occupant of 1964 Park St. It is also set to stay put, though Babey said it will move into a space that once housed a cafeteria.

SCR hopes to accommodate six tenants in the 80,000-square-foot building. Babey said there has already been “a lot of interest.” He has leases with two new tenants and a conditional agreement with a 20,000-square-foot office user. He said an “amusement” attraction, involving zip-lining and other pursuits, expects to set up where the Leader-post ran its printing press until January 2016, when the paper started printing at its sister paper, the Saskatoon Starphoenix.

“There will be a lot of people coming and going,” said Babey.

The building, which includes a sizable basement, was built in 1964. It is the latest of several buildings — including the old Leader Building downtown — that have hosted the Leader-post. The paper began as the Leader in 1883.