By Frank Cho
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Honolulu Advertiser will build a $70 million printing and distribution facility in Kapolei, expanding its printing capabilities to compete with its afternoon rival and giving another boost to development in the area.
The announcement yesterday comes a week before The Advertiser and the afternoon Honolulu Star-Bulletin are scheduled to end a 39-year joint operating agreement in which they shared production and distribution facilities.
The fee-simple purchase of 11.6 acres, owned by the Campbell Estate, is expected to close this year. Construction on the 160,000-square-foot facility, almost double the size of the newspaper’s downtown printing plant, will begin after permit approvals are received. Completion is scheduled for 2004.
"Certainly, with this printing plant we will have the ability to print not only the daily newspaper but other publications," Advertiser Publisher and President Mike Fisch said yesterday. Fisch said those other publications could include a Hawai‘i edition of USA Today, another Gannett-owned daily newspaper.
The move to Kapolei will affect about 400 Advertiser employees who will move to the new facility, Fisch said. The Advertiser’s business and editorial operations will remain at 605 Kapi‘olani Boulevard, the site of the newspaper since 1929.
"We believe that this is a good franchise and a franchise that we are going to invest in," Fisch said. "This gives us the ability to build one of the most technologically advanced printing facilities in the country. In the end, it really is an investment to improve the newspaper for the reader and the advertiser."
Union officials representing some of the workers who will be affected said the new technology may mean fewer positions will be needed at the new plant.
"We have heard rumors about the move, but I don’t think we are going to run into any trouble losing too many people," said Ed Knott, president of Graphic Communications International Union Local 413N, which represents about 70 pressroom workers at The Advertiser.
'Great step forward'
Fisch said The Advertiser may add positions in Kapolei because it expects to expand its printing business once the new presses are in place. "If you look at O‘ahu where it’s growing, it is growing in that area," Fisch said.
"Our city takes a great step forward with this multimillion dollar investment in O‘ahu’s fastest growing area, Kapolei," Mayor Jeremy Harris said.
In addition to construction of the new printing plant, Fisch said The Advertiser will spend several million dollars renovating its downtown headquarters and several more million to upgrade technology. The renovations of the downtown headquarters will start after the printing building is completed.
Gannett Pacific Corp., The Advertiser’s parent company, will invest about $29.5 million for construction and area improvements for the new printing and distribution complex. The presses are projected to cost about $40.6 million, Fisch said.
The Advertiser has been in a joint operating agreement with the Star-Bulletin since 1962. As part of that agreement, the Star-Bulletin printed its newspaper on Advertiser-owned presses.
But those presses are more than 30 years old and need replacing, Fisch said. Plans were already under way to replace the presses when the Star-Bulletin announced its closure and a court-ordered injunction delayed the announcement.
The new presses for The Advertiser also will provide higher-quality resolution so images in the newspaper will be clearer and sharper, an attractive element for readers as well as advertisers.
Fisch said presses have not been chosen, but a decision is expected sometime in the next six months. He also said it has not yet been determined what will be done with the space that will be left at the downtown headquarters.
The development at Kapolei also provides an added boost for the growing community there. Eight major construction projects valued at more than $165 million are planned or are under way in Kapolei this year, including Halekuai Center, an office/retail complex across the street from the Kapolei Shopping Center; a 5,500-square-foot Chili’s Grill and Bar, at the east end of the Kapolei Shopping Center; a 3,000-square-foot Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers; and Phase 1 of the 43,000-square-foot Kapolei Public Library.
Kapolei already is home to more than 100 businesses and government offices, which provide about 3,000 jobs. Over the next few years, the projects under way are expected to bring more than 800 additional jobs to Kapolei.
"Gannett’s plans for a high-tech publishing facility brings synergy to all the other technology projects at Kapolei," said Steve MacMillan, Campbell estate chief executive officer.
Frank Cho can be reached by phone at 525-8088 or by e-mail at fcho@honoluluadvertiser.com.
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