Effective Aug. 1, 2024, the Bellefontaine Examiner has moved its offices into the PeakFiber building at 1213 W. Sandusky Ave., Bellefontaine.
The newspaper and PeakFiber teams share the space and both remain open for business.
Change is one of the few constants in the world. After nearly 50 years, the Examiner team is relocating this Thursday to the PeakFiber building, a modern office space located across from the former Western Elementary School. The Examiner’s hours of operation will remain unchanged, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. An open house event to celebrate the move will be announced at a later date.
The Examiner has occupied the 127 E. Chillicothe Ave. location since 1975. Former publisher, the late Tom Hubbard, worked with Bellefontaine-based Thomas & Marker Construction to build the 11,500 square-foot office and printing facility to replace the paper’s former home at 130-136 Court St.
“Bellefontaine, and the rest of the country, was experiencing a rough economic period in the early 70s, prior to Honda and other manufacturing companies locating here,” Tom’s grandson, and Examiner Publisher/ Owner, T.J. Hubbard said.
“Part of my grandfather’s motivation to build a large, strong-looking brick facility in the downtown was to help give the community that he loved a boost. In a similar way, I am certain the move to the West Sandusky location will help the paper continue to change with the times; and help our business keep pace with ever-changing technologies,” Hubbard continued.
In 2018, Rodney and Andrea Wrocklage, owners of several local businesses, leased part of the newspaper’s building for their Hi-Point Graphics production operations. With their business growth came the need for more space. The Wrocklages purchased the Examiner building in March of 2022 and relocated All-Around Awards next to its sister graphics company. The Examiner and the Wrocklage businesses traded roles of landlord and tenant. Since then, considerable improvements to the 127 E. Chillicothe Ave. property have been made in the last two years.
Tentatively, they plan to use the space formerly occupied by Examiner staff to enlarge existing retail and production operations and may look to lease part of the space to a new tenant in the future.
More than a mere physical location change, the move, to 1213 W. Sandusky Ave., is a collaboration between the 133-year-old newspaper and PeakFiber Broadband, the only locally-owned and operated broadband service provider in Logan County.
The businesses are a good fit and have synergies together. The PeakFiber network is 100 percent pure fiber-optic from each user’s residence or business to the Internet backbone – making the service more reliable and delivering a consistently faster service than copper networks. Some of the Examiner staff has already begun sales and marketing efforts for PeakFiber locally.
Jake Minnich, VP and General Manager of PeakFiber said, “PeakFiber Broadband is a public-private partnership which includes the Bellefontaine-Logan County Port Authority and Richwood Bank. Our mission is to provide a new, cutting-edge network to all Logan County addresses – a multi-year project: with the vision of making Logan County even more attractive as a great place, to live, work and play.”
“The Examiner team’s assistance in helping us grow and develop a community of PeakFiber members is greatly appreciated” said Mike Minnich, the other half of this father-son duo that is part of the talent behind the construction, community relationships and support of this 24x7x365 provider.
“Naturally, the Examiner will have access to PeakFiber Broadband, which offers the service at the speed of light, plus better security, reliability and adaptability that a media company requires in this 21st Century.”
Ben Vollrath, Logan County Chamber of Commerce president, and staff will also continue to assist with PeakFiber sales efforts as they have for the past few years.