Giancola, who owns a number of real estate holdings in Rutland including the city’s largest industrial property, said he plans to renovate the Rutland Herald building. “We don’t raze, we recycle,” Giancola said, minutes after submitting the winning bid.
Auctioneer Eric Nathan, of Nathan Auction and Real Estate, asked for an opening $1 million bid, but buyers opened and closed offers between $500,000 and $600,000. The 20,000-square-foot building was previously listed for sale for $895,000 with Coldwell Banker.
“You’re getting half a block — not half a block, you’re getting half of downtown Rutland,” Nathan told bidders midway through the auction.
Five bidders competed for the 1.5-acre parcel and brick building, in an auction that took place just outside the building and lasted less than 15 minutes.
The auction included the newsroom and offices of the Rutland Herald at 27 and 33 Wales St., and 43 Center St., a parking lot known locally at “The Pit,” where the Berwick Hotel burned to the ground in 1973.
The Rutland Herald headquarters sold with a $51,000 tax bill attached to it but no liens or other encumbrances, according to auctioneer Nathan.
The Mitchell family sold the Rutland newspaper and The Times Argus in Barre last summer to Vermont Community Media Community. The new owners are Reade Brower, principal owner of Maine Today Media, and Chip Harris, co-founder of Upper Valley Press in New Hampshire, which prints the Herald and The Times Argus.
Rob Mitchell, who was retained by the new company as general manager, said the sale will put a difficult year behind them.
“It seems like the end of a long year,” Mitchell said. “There’s a lot of memories, a lot of history tied up with this building. In a way it’s also a good thing, because hopefully my family will be able to move on.”
Mitchell said the Rutland Herald staff will move to a new location on Grove Street this week.
Fifty years of archives and 50,000 photo negatives will be transferred to the new location; other historic materials will be donated to historical societies.
“Things have been moving so fast this year, I haven’t really come to terms with the fact that we’re moving out,” Mitchell said.
It’s a bigger space than the paper needs, said Robert Layman, a Rutland Herald staff photographer. “I think it’s a smart move for the Herald… It’s a better way for them to downsize their operation, without having to downsize staff,” Layman said.
Most of the money from the sale will be used to pay a $855,000 Small Business Association loan.
