From the Ground Up: Springfield News-Leader Press Hall

Address: 651 N. Boonville Ave.

Owner-developer: Gannett River States Publishing Co.

General contractor: DeWitt and Associates

Architect: Hood-Rich Inc. has done 99 percent of the architecture work for the new press hall, according to Tom Tate, projects/production manager.

Square footage: 36,000 square feet

Estimated construction cost: $1,044,309 for the press hall, according to the permit filed with the city of Springfield.

Estimated completion date: The bulk of the building should be finished Oct. 1. The press will start to rise in mid-November, and support systems will begin to arrive in January and February 2002. Following testing, June 10, 2002, is the anticipated date for the new press to be on edition.

Description of project: The press hall will house a new Mann-Roland Geoman 70 double-wide offset press. The structure will have a stair tower that rises about 55 feet above the existing parking lot. The existing press hall runs east and west, but the new facility will run north and south. The new press will be able to print 70,000 copies in an hour. In the final phases of the project, the existing press hall will be converted into a newsprint storage facility. The old press will be used for parts by other Gannett sites.