Development and construction On June 20, 1979, the Chicago Tribune announced plans for a $150 million printing plant, to replace their former printing facility at
Tribune Tower. The site was to be located in the
River North district, right off of the
Chicago River. Architecture firm
Skidmore Owings & Merrill designed the building. The Tribune acquired the 21-acre parcel of land in 1967. The goal of completion at the beginning of the project was the fall of 1982. The building would be 697,000 sq ft, and contain 10 Goss Metroliner offset presses, with space for two more. The presses could run 75,000 papers per hour, versus 60,000 at Tribune Tower. The maximum issue would also be 144 pages, versus 112 at Tribune Tower. Ground was broken on the building in September 1979.Later during construction, the anticipated price was changed to $185 Million. On July 15 , 1981, the Chicago Tribune announced that the name of the facility would be "Freedom Center". The name was suggested by the environment editor at the time, Casey Bukro. Partial production of the facility was expected to be operational by September 1981, with full production capacity by September 1982. On January 4, 1986, a rally took place during the strike, and violence occurred. The violence broke out at about 5:00 AM when protesters started to throw rocks at delivery trucks leaving the plant. After police tried to use horses to separate the crowd, bricks started to be thrown. The crowd was assumed to be around 10,000 people, with 100 police present. There were 10 people with minor injuries, 35 were arrested, one police officer was injured, 5 Tribune employees were injured, and several delivery trucks were damaged as well. In September 2002, a new distribution facility was opened, directly north and across the street of the main Freedom Center Building. The building's name was "Freedom Center North". It was located at 700 W Chicago. It is 115,000-square-feet in size. It later closed at an unknown time. In 2014, when
Tribune Media split up their newspaper division in to
Tribune Publishing, Tribune Media kept their real estate assets, which included Freedom Center. That year, the property was bought by
Nexstar Media as part of their wider acquisition of
Tribune Media for $4.1 billion. The Chicago Tribune held a lease on the site until 2023, with two 10 year options for extension. Also included in the lease was a relocation clause, which allowed for them to relocate during the lease. In January 2021, the Chicago Tribune offices and newsroom moved out of
One Prudential Plaza and relocated to Freedom Center. This was only three years after their exit from
Tribune Tower. == Re-development ==