Demolition of Tuscaloosa News Building Underway to Clear Space for Saban Center

The once iconic former headquarters of the Tuscaloosa News is being demolished now to make way for the city's $80 million Saban Center.

The building - completed in 2002 when the newspaper was still owned by the New York Times - was sold to the city in 2019 by Gatehouse Media, who merged with Gannett and still owns the publication.

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The Saban Center is a marquee project for STEM learning and the future home of children's programs like the Tuscaloosa Hands On Museum, and early plans for it to repurpose the glass-window-lined TNews building.

It is a result of collaboration between the city and the Nick's Kids Foundation, run by Nick and Terry Saban, and partnership with public and private entities throughout West Alabama.

The State of Alabama threw a wrinkle into preliminary plans when Governor Kay Ivey pledged $25 million to the project on the condition that the Saban Center include programming to train teachers from all over the state.

The new funding was a boon for the Saban Center, but a bad omen for the old building, which would no longer suit the expanded scope of the project.

Earlier this year, the Tuscaloosa City Council - who paid $8 million for the building - entered into a contract with Britt Demolition to tear it down for $400,000.

That process is underway now, with excavators tearing down exterior walls and demolishing a building that once housed the presses that printed the paper and dozens of journalists, photographers, editors, ad executives and production staff.

The teardown is expected to be finished late next February, and bids for building the Saban Center, whose final designs have not been publicly revealed, will be held in Spring 2025.

Groundbreaking could follow as soon as April, and the finished Saban Center is expected to open to the public in 2027. For updates on the demolition and development as they continue, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.

Editor's note: the author of this report was a reporter for the Tuscaloosa News from 2016 until 2018.