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Article published September 10, 2008
Block Communications to move offices downtown
BLADE STAFF

Block Communications Inc., parent company of The Blade, will relocate its headquarters to the National City Bank building in downtown Toledo from Monroe Street in Sylvania.

Allan Block, chairman of Block Communications, made the announcement yesterday after his firm concluded negotiations to lease a floor of the 29-story building at Madison Avenue and St. Clair Street.

The National City Bank building is owned by 405 Madison Ltd., a partnership that includes Dan DiSalle, Sr., president of DiSalle Real Estate and DiSalle Securities and Mortgage Co., and Bill Thees, senior vice president of DiSalle Securities and Mortgage.

"We are thrilled that we can move our corporate headquarters to Toledo. It's a sign of our faith in Toledo, and in downtown Toledo," Mr. Block said, adding that he hopes the move could be completed in November.

Block Communications, which has 12 employees, had considered several other sites in the Toledo metro area, including a new building in Sylvania Township that Mr. Block said would have met all of the company's needs. "But supporting Toledo was the bottom line," he added.

Block Communications, a privately held company that also owns Buckeye CableSystem, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Buckeye Telesystem, and five television stations, has been in Sylvania since March, 2006.

Constructed in 1932, the 228,000-square-foot National City Bank building was from 1935 until 1981 the original downtown headquarters of Owens-Illinois Inc., which is now in Perrysburg. The former Ohio Citizens Bank bought the building in 1981 from O-I, and the building got its current name a year later when National City Bank acquired Ohio Citizens.