Houston Chron! Hear all about it! 440,000-SF office move

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle Media Group will consolidate most of its downtown workforce at 801 Texas into the former Houston Post building at 4747 Southwest Fwy. The location is a four-story structure on 21 acres.

Executives said they anticipate an 18-month timeline for the move, which would include a significant renovation of the 40-year-old property. Ideally, the renovations will be completed in January 2016.

The move will involve employees from the Houston Chronicle, La Voz, Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com, though a portion of the newsroom will remain downtown to support local coverage of business and government.

The Chronicle’s downtown building houses 473 employees. A little more than 500 employees work in the southwest facility. Approximately 100 employees who work outside of the company’s two main facilities will not be consolidated into the new campus.

The Southwest Fwy. structure contains more than 440,000 sf in seven buildings, most of which are connected.

The main building most visible from the freeways will undergo the most extensive renovations. That property contains about 126,000 sf in four stories of largely unobstructed space.

The property housed the Houston Post until April 1995, when that newspaper closed and its assets were sold to Hearst, parent company of the Houston Chronicle. Today, it is home of the Chronicle’s press operations, distribution, circulation and local sales teams.