CA to move offices downtown
The Commercial Appeal has finalized an agreement to move company offices to space in the Pembroke Square at Peabody Place.
The new offices, on the third floor at 119 S. Main St., was formerly occupied by the Oden marketing agency, which moved to Vance Avenue in Downtown.
In April 2018, The Commercial Appeal announced it had sold its current building and parking lots at 495 Union Ave. to Twenty Lakes Holdings LLC.
“We are thrilled to be moving into Pembroke Square and being a part of Peabody Place, a hub of activity in the heart of Downtown Memphis,” said Mike Jung, president of The Commercial Appeal. “While 495 Union has been a great home during the past 40-plus years, it will feel good to move into a more modern space that will better serve our needs now and in the future.”
Pembroke Square was built in 1924 and renovated in 1997. Managed by Belz Enterprises, other tenants in the building include an Executive Office Center, the Belz Museum of Asian and Judaic Art and the city of Memphis among others.
This will be the sixth move in the history of The Commercial Appeal.
“The Commercial Appeal has occupied 495 Union for more than four decades and we will leave behind some indelible memories,” said Executive Editor Mark Russell. “We look forward to creating new memories in Pembroke Square in the heart of Downtown. The new office will offer staffers more technology and an open, modern workspace. We look forward to making the move.”
The move to the new space is expected in May.
The Commercial Appeal moved into the Union Avenue office building in November 1977, a couple of years after the opening of a 150,000-square-foot production building.
Plans for the 125,000-square-foot, five-story office building costing $6 million were announced in 1975. It was designed by the late architect Francis Mah of Walk Jones & Francis Mah Inc. and housed both The Commercial Appeal and the former Memphis Press-scimitar, which closed in 1983.
Housing for The Commercial Appeal traces to a wooden building on the bank of the Wolf River.
The newspaper operated over Browning’s Grocery at Poplar and Main in 1845 and moved into a new building the newspaper built in 1860 at Union and Front.
The newspaper operated on the run during the Civil War (publishing from Grenada, Jackson and Meridian, Mississippi; Montgomery, Alabama; and Atlanta and Columbus, Georgia).
After the war, its newspaper headquarters included the Appeal Building at Main and Jefferson. By 1894 the newspaper was headquartered on the southeast corner of Second and Court.
A celebration will be held at 495 Union before the move.