Los Angeles Times site to be redeveloped

Tribune Real Estate Holdings, the owner of the Los Angeles Times building, is seeking partners to help develop properties in downtown L.A. and Orange County.

The company said it wants to improve The Times’ longtime home at 1st and Spring streets near City Hall and a vacant printing and distribution plant between Sunflower Avenue and South Coast Drive in Costa Mesa.

The Times occupies less than half of the roughly 700,000-square-foot complex in downtown L.A. known as Times Mirror Square. The buildings dating to 1934 began to empty after Times Mirror Co. was acquired by Tribune Co. in 2000 and management functions moved to Chicago. Staff cutbacks in later years led to further vacancies.

Tribune Publishing Co., which prints The Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and other newspapers, was spun off from Tribune Media last year and no longer owns the buildings its newspapers occupy.

One of the most valuable parcels associated with The Times is a parking lot on 2nd Street where an entrance to a new subway line is planned. The site could be used for high-rise mixed-use development.

“The Times Mirror Square master plan promises to deliver a compelling urban project that includes the restoration of important buildings and the construction of complementary new buildings around a new Metro Rail station directly connected to four of the region’s major rail lines,” Murray McQueen, president of Tribune Real Estate, said in a statement Thursday.

“We look forward to identifying the best development partner to help us achieve the immense potential of this site.”

The Times is expected to continue to occupy space in Times Mirror Square as a tenant. Other tenants, including the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System, have moved in and others are expected to follow.

Tribune Real Estate is also seeking a partner to oversee development of the 21-acre Costa Mesa plant, which has a functional rail spur and a helicopter pad.

roger.vincent@latimes.com