Corner Printing ends 20-year run

After 20 years in business, Pat and Patty Flanigan are closing Corner Printing.

The Flanigans sold their building at 411 S. Campbell for $350,000 to neighbor Nick Sibley, who owns property across the street at 412 and 416 S. Campbell.

“The offer was too good to refuse,” Pat Flanigan said.

Sibley, who operates Nick Sibley Music, plans to have retail space on the first floor and offices on the second. Renovation work by Mike Russell already has begun on the second floor.

The deal, which closed Sept. 9, included the two-story Corner Printing building and the 20-space parking lot behind it.

Sibley said acquiring another building in close proximity to his two South Campbell properties, plus a parking lot, adds value to his holdings.

“I wanted that parking lot mainly,” Sibley said, noting,“I had a chance to buy that parking lot 15 years ago for 20 percent of what I paid for it this time.”

Sibley also owns a warehouse at 405 N. Campbell, the Rincon Latino building at 521 Boonville and six storefronts at 401–413 Boonville.

Bob McCroskey of Bob McCroskey Realtors represented the Flanigans in the sale. John Schnoebelen of Murney Associates represented Sibley in the transaction and is the leasing agent for the building.

Passing the torch

Corner Printing’s equipment and accounts are going to another independent downtown printer, Traders Printing Company at 230 W. McDaniel.

“I purchased all of his equipment, accounts, pretty much everything in the building,” said Andy Cobb, owner of Traders Printing.

The deal included a 12-by-18-inch Hamada two-color press, an item that had been on Cobb’s wish list for a while. Cobb felt the deal was generous.

“I paid $15,000 for everything,” Cobb said. “I’m sure there are other people out there that would have paid more. But they wanted to keep it local, (with) somebody that’s already well-established.”

Flanigan said he chose Cobb for three reasons.

“One, he’s close. Two, he’s locally owned – its not a franchise. And three, he seemed like the kind of guy that would work with my customers,” he said.

Those customers include such long-time clients as Positronic Industries and Hogan Land Title. Cobb said he already is hearing from Corner Printing customers, and he hopes to hire Corner Printing’s two pressmen.

Traders Printing was founded in 1925 and has been in Cobb’s family for about 45 years, originally purchased by his father, Stanford. Cobb has worked at Traders full time for eight or nine years, but he only recently became a business owner, acquiring the business in his own name in January.

He noted that Pat Flanigan really liked the idea of passing his equipment and business to a young person on his way up.

Patty Flanigan said they wanted to share their good fortune.

“We got an offer too good to refuse. We wanted to give him an offer too good to refuse,” she said.

Closing up shop

“It’s so bittersweet,” Patty Flanigan said to a customer who dropped by to pick up her final order from Corner Printing. “It’s been such a wonderful relationship.”

And relationships have been the point.

The Flanigans purchased the printing business in 1985 as an existing Pip franchise. They dropped the Pip affiliation in 1992, becoming Corner Printing.

The Flanigans’ business philosophy was based on “old-fashioned common sense and wanting to do the right thing. And treating people with respect,” Patty Flanigan said.

Customers are “sad to see us go; happy that we’ve made some money,” Pat Flanigan added.

Their neighbors will miss them as well.

“We’re sorry to see them go, and we wish them well,” said Beth Buczynski, co-owner of The Well-Fed Head Bookstore across the street.

She described the Flanigans as “fun, and some of the friendliest people we’ve met downtown.”

After wrapping up loose ends, the Flanigans plan to visit family in upstate New York. “We’re planning to take the winter off and do stuff at home that we haven’t had time to do in 20 years,” Pat Flanigan said.