Orlando Sentinel leaving its building

Business vacating after 69 years in downtown location

The Orlando Sentinel announced Wednesday it will leave its downtown building, the newspaper’s home since 1951.

“After careful deliberation, we have decided to permanently vacate our Orange Avenue office,” Publisher and General Manager Nancy Meyer said in an email to Sentinel employees. “This decision was not made lightly or hastily. Instead, amid a pandemic that prevents us from safely returning to the office for an undetermined period of time, the company decided to formally close the Orange Avenue office on October 30, 2020.”

She added, “In the coming months we will continue to examine the workplace needs for the teams currently based at the downtown office. We will keep you informed of additional decisions as they are made. Until then, we ask that employees continue to work in remote status.”

The Sentinel has not owned its downtown campus since 2014, when the property was spun off to a separate company after the newspaper’s parent, Tribune Publishing, emerged from bankruptcy. The property is now owned by Miami-based developer Midtown Opportunities.

The Sentinel offices, along with others across the nation, have been mostly empty for the past five months because of the pandemic. But like many newspapers across the country, Sentinel reporters, photographers and editors have been working remotely.

In June, the Sentinel was sued by its landlord for not paying rent for three months during the coronavirus pandemic. According to an Orange Circuit Court lawsuit, Midtown Opportunities said it was owed about $370,000 for rent from April through June.

Midtown Opportunities lawyer Kristin Royal did not immediately return a message seeking comment Wednesday.

Tribune Publishing spokesman Max Reinsdorf declined to comment on the lawsuit but issued a statement about the company’s decision to close the downtown Orlando headquarters.

“Out of an abundance of caution we do not anticipate having employees that can work remotely coming back into the office for the remainder of the year and into 2021,” he said. “With no clear path forward in terms of returning to work, and as the company evaluates its real estate needs in light of health and economic conditions brought about by the pandemic, we have made the difficult decision to permanently close the office.”

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 8, Tribune Publishing said the company had withheld April, May and June rent payments for “a majority of its facilities and requested rent