Michelle Willard, Daily News Journal, September 7, 2015
MURFREESBORO – The days of the former Daily News Journal building on North Walnut and the buildings where the new judicial building will stand are officially numbered.
The demolition of the buildings will likely begin Oct. 19 to make way for the new judicial building, County Mayor Ernest Burgess confirmed.
Burgess said the occupants of the county-owned buildings at College and Maple streets have been notified they must move out no later than Oct. 18. The county plans to begin putting up fences and readying the sites to be cleared starting Oct. 19.
The announcement was made at the monthly Rutherford County Public Building Authority meeting last month where the committee reviewed the latest designs for the proposed judicial building and accompanying parking garage.
Gannett Co., the parent company of The DNJ, sold the newspaper’s long-time location on Walnut Street in the summer of 2014. The former location will be used as the site of a future parking garage for the planned judicial building.
The parking garage will include parking for 366 cars on College Street between Lytle and Walnut streets.
The Rutherford County Public Building Authority approved the designs for the new judicial center at its Aug. 20 meeting. The new building is scheduled to open by June 2018 on the north side of Lytle Street, a couple of blocks north of the Square.
The six-story, 200,000-square-foot structure is supposed to replace an overcrowded Judicial Building that dates back to around 1980 when the county had about 200,000 fewer people than the U.S. Census estimated population for 2014 of 288,906.
The DNJ has since relocated to the fourth floor of the SunTrust building, 201 E. Main St. in Murfreesboro to the space once used as the James K. Polk conference room and several individual offices, which were combined to create a new home for the newspaper.
Contact Michelle Willard at 615-278-5164