The Chronicle’s longtime home at 321 N. Pearl St. in Centralia is officially on the market.
The building doesn’t belong to Chronicle owners Chad and Coralee Taylor, who, as CT Publishing, purchased the company from former owner Jenifer Lafromboise Falcon on Jan. 1, 2021.
Lafromboise Falcon is asking for $1.2 million for the two-story, 22,452-square-foot building on a .37-acre lot across from Centralia City Hall. According to Lewis County Parcels, the property has an assessed value of $811,500.
CT Publishing Publisher Chad Taylor said while he knows the downtown Centralia office has been an important landmark and institution since it was built in 1947, he is excited to chart the newspaper’s future from a new location, though he doesn’t yet have a timeline or destination for the move.
“It is a wonderful opportunity for us to find a more modern building to continue on our current trajectory of growth,” Chad Taylor said. “The North Pearl Street location is iconic in many ways, and staff past and present have great memories there, but there are interesting and exciting opportunities in our community to secure a building more fitted to our needs. We have seen incredible growth in our readership and long-term sustainability over the past four years, and we expect that to continue regardless of where our local news is produced. We look forward to welcoming the community to our new home when the time comes.”
While Lafromboise Falcon only recently listed the property, she has toured the building with interested parties in the time since the Taylors took ownership of the newspaper chain in 2021.
The Taylors currently rent the building.
Asked if the Taylors would consider purchasing the building, CT Publishing CEO Coralee Taylor said it is highly unlikely.
“For that investment, we would more likely consider building a new office that we could adapt specifically for our needs,” she said.
In addition to The Chronicle, the 2021 sale also included the company’s other newspapers, the Nisqually Valley News in Yelm and The Reflector in Battle Ground. The Taylors separately own the Silver Agency, a marketing firm in Chehalis.
Prior to selling the newspapers to the Taylors in 2021, Lafromboise Falcon was the third member of her family to guide the company after her father, Richard Lafromboise, and her mother, Jeraldine “Jeri” Lafromboise.
Richard Lafromboise purchased The Daily Chronicle in 1968. It was the third newspaper in his publishing group, which also included the Aberdeen Daily World and Redding, California-based Red Bluff Daily News. When Richard Lafromboise died months after purchasing The Chronicle, his wife, Jeraldine “Jeri” Lafromboise, took the helm and led the company until 2012, when the chair of the board position was handed off to Lafromboise Falcon.
