After 57 years, Gleaner's North Street fortress changes hands

The Gist

LP Azar Limited has entered a binding sale agreement with RJRGLEANER Communications Group to acquire the historic Gleaner building at 7 North Street, Kingston — a five-storey complex listed at around US$8.54 million — with the transaction targeted to close within about 45 days, subject to customary closing conditions, and the buyer outlining plans to redevelop the site into a hardware distribution hub, refurbished offices and a trade training centre.

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What Happened

The sale agreement covers not only the main North Street building but also adjacent lots and parking areas across a site.

RJRGLEANER Communications Group has entered a binding agreement with LP Azar Limited for the sale of its property at 7 North Street, Kingston, including adjacent lots and parking areas; the transaction has not yet legally closed and remains subject to customary closing conditions.
The Gleaner building is 57 years old — construction began in 1967 and it was completed and fully opened in 1969; The Gleaner newspaper itself was established in 1834, making it Jamaica's oldest newspaper.
RJRGLEANER states the sale forms part of broader strategic restructuring to optimise its operational footprint; staff previously at North Street will be relocated to the group's 32 Lyndhurst Road facilities.
The property was listed on realtor sites with an asking price of around US$8.54 million (about J$1.4 billion); Azar confirmed there was a competitive bidding process but declined to disclose the final purchase price.
According to the Financial Gleaner, LP Azar Limited has outlined plans to place a hardware distribution centre at the East Street entrance, refurbish four levels of offices for LP Azar and tenants, and convert the former gym and sports club into a trade training centre covering welding, plumbing, carpentry and possibly garment construction.
Azar says the aim is to complete the redevelopment by the first quarter of 2027, though this timeline remains aspirational and no regulatory approvals or construction milestones are yet confirmed.

LP Azar To Transform Gleaner Property – By The Numbers

🍌AI

US$8,506,081

Sale Price Listing

Approximate listing price for the Gleaner property at 7 North Street, Kingston, including the five‑storey complex and associated land and parking, as advertised for sale.

≈3 acres

Site Size

Total estimated land area of the North Street property (main building plus adjacent lots and parking), providing substantial space for LP Azar’s planned hardware distribution hub, offices, and training centre.

120,000 sq ft

Building Floor Area

Approximate gross floor area of the Gleaner’s five‑storey commercial building, originally designed as a large‑scale publishing and media facility with offices, production space, warehousing and operations.

57 years

Building Age

Age of the Gleaner building as of 2026, with construction begun in 1967 and completion/opening in 1969, making it a mid‑20th‑century landmark now slated for adaptive reuse.

≈45 days

Transaction Closing Window

Targeted period for legal completion of the sale to LP Azar, subject to customary closing conditions, after signing of the binding agreement between RJRGLEANER Communications Group and LP Azar Limited.

J$20,000,000+

Investment In Prior LP Azar Deal

Amount LP Azar previously invested to acquire CD Alexander Company (a real estate firm), illustrating the group’s existing appetite for property‑related investments, relevant to its Gleaner redevelopment plans.

Key Insights

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The planned sale of the historic Gleaner property for about US$8.5 million transfers roughly 3 acres and 120,000 sq ft of commercial floor space to LP Azar, enabling a large‑scale hardware distribution and training hub in downtown Kingston.[5]

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RJRGLEANER is using the transaction to accelerate consolidation of its operations at the Lyndhurst Road campus and modernize its footprint, relocating staff from the 57‑year‑old North Street building while emphasizing long‑term efficiency and shareholder value.[1][2][3]

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LP Azar’s prior J$20 million‑plus real estate investment (CD Alexander acquisition) signals a continuing strategy of expanding its property and commercial infrastructure portfolio, with the Gleaner redevelopment likely to add significant new logistics and employment capacity in the city centre.[4][5]

The Impact

For RJRGLEANER, consolidating onto a single Lyndhurst Road campus frees capital and management bandwidth for its core print, digital and broadcast operations — a meaningful efficiency gain for a listed company navigating a challenging media environment. For central Kingston, the transformation of a prominent but now-vacant commercial complex could catalyse broader private-sector interest in the area's ageing building stock.

The proposed trade training centre carries particular social weight: geared specifically toward youth in central Kingston, it would, if delivered, provide vocational pathways in welding, plumbing, carpentry and garment construction in a community where unemployment and crime remain persistent concerns. LP Azar's track record at Victoria Pier — where Azar deliberately employed unattached youth — lends some credibility to this stated intent, though execution is far from guaranteed.

What to watch: • Whether the 45-day closing window is met and RJRGLEANER confirms the transaction has legally completed under Jamaica Stock Exchange disclosure rules. • Submission and approval of any planning or building permits required before LP Azar can commence redevelopment of the North Street site. • Whether the first-quarter 2027 target for project readiness holds as construction scoping and refurbishment costs are formally assessed.

"The former Gleaner property spans roughly 2.5 to 3 acres and contains a five-storey commercial complex; it was listed on realtor sites at approximately US$8.54 million (about J$1.4 billion), with the final sale price undisclosed."
— Financial Gleaner / realtor site listings, as reported in source material

The Pulse

Social Conversation: neutral

Two neutral posts announce LP Azar's plan to convert the former Gleaner property into a hardware, manufacturing, and training centre.

property redevelopmentbusiness investmentindustrial transformation

Voices on X

"LP Azar Limited plans to transform the property that formerly housed The Gleaner Company (Media) Limited into a hardware, manufacturing, and training centre.
Read more: https://t.co/3dqztFp8hc #GLNRFinance https://t.co/m5Dp9tPWBh"
@JamaicaGleaner · Jamaica · 4d ago · 32 engagements · View on X

"LP Azar to transform Gleaner property https://t.co/aJpIWhr8h3"
@Sparkiebaby · CEO Twelve 9 Records · 4d ago · 5 engagements · View on X

Based on 2 posts from X · Jul 22, 2026

Perspectives

Strategic necessity: RJRGLEANER frames the disposal as deliberate corporate modernisation rather than a distress sale, arguing that concentrating staff and resources on a single Lyndhurst Road campus will improve operational efficiency and enhance long-term shareholder value — a position consistent with broader media-industry trends away from legacy multi-site estates.

Private-sector urban renewal: Azar positions the acquisition as part of a wider agenda to revive derelict Kingston landmarks through private investment — citing Victoria Pier and Shoppes at Southdale as proof of concept — and argues that youth-focused vocational training embedded in the redevelopment addresses both economic and social imperatives in central Kingston.

Caution on timelines and certainty: Independent fact-checking flags that Azar's redevelopment plans are forward-looking statements with no confirmed permits or financing milestones, and that the sale itself has not yet closed; readers should treat both the Q1 2027 completion target and the training centre concept as intentions subject to material change.

"It's definitely over what the valuation was, because there was a bidding process and several other people were bidding for the building."
— Andrew Azar, Principal, LP Azar Limited, via Financial Gleaner

C360 View

The pending North Street sale is more than a balance-sheet transaction — it's a test of whether Caribbean private capital can do what governments have repeatedly struggled to: anchor economic activity in inner-city communities through investment rather than aspiration.

It's also the quiet exit of a Kingston landmark. For 57 years, 7 North Street was built as a statement — a fortress with room to grow, spacious enough that a television station was once meant to fit inside it and never did. It housed the oldest continuously published newspaper in the Western Hemisphere, founded in 1834. Now that fortress is being sold, its staff folded into RJR's Lyndhurst Road offices. The old lady of North Street won't be at that address much longer — and for many Jamaicans, the harder question isn't the building, but how much runway The Gleaner itself has left.

North Street has lost its institutional anchors one by one for decades — courts, churches, the paper of record all drifting outward, leaving a corridor of underused colonial-era and mid-century buildings private capital has been slow to touch. LP Azar's bet runs against that pattern. The company is fabric and hardware by trade, not property — yet Andrew Azar has a track record of taking on Kingston buildings others walk past: Victoria Pier, long derelict, now a mixed-use venue; Shoppes at Southdale, gutted during the pandemic, now fully tenanted. The proposed North Street redevelopment — a hardware distribution centre, refurbished offices, a trade training centre teaching welding, plumbing and carpentry — fits that lineage, at a scale the earlier projects didn't carry.

That record is encouraging, and a functioning trade centre would help close a skills gap that costs real productivity and stability. But the sale hasn't closed, no permits are filed, and the Q1 2027 target is, by Azar's own admission, aspirational.

Verdict: A credible, socially purposeful deal — and the end of an era for one of Kingston's most recognisable buildings. The closing confirmation and the first construction permit will say whether it's a transformation; what happens to The Gleaner itself will say whether it's more than a real estate story.