Sun moves to new Henderson offices

Monday, March 5, 2001 | 11:49 a.m.

The home may be new, but the mission to provide Las Vegas with complete news coverage and insightful opinions is the same now as it was at the inception of the Las Vegas Sun a half-century ago.

The Sun has moved to a new, high-tech building, off Green Valley Parkway and Interstate 215, but Sun Publisher Barbara Greenspun says fancy new offices are not -- and never have been -- what the Sun is all about.

"Yes, this is a beautiful new building and yes it is very upscale and modern, but we are still the Las Vegas Sun -- the leading newspaper voice in the community," said Greenspun, whose late husband, Hank Greenspun, purchased the paper in 1950.

"These are just trimmings, not the heart of the newspaper. The heart of the Sun is the hard-working people who have for many years provided our readers with the most in-depth coverage of community events and news."

The new Sun building, 2275 Corporate Circle Drive in Henderson, is less than a half-hour from downtown Las Vegas and a stone's throw from the other Greenspun Corp. offices, including Vegas.com, the Greenspun Media Group and America Nevada Corp. It is in the western end of Corporate Circle Drive.

This is the newspaper's sixth home, including two sites that were temporary.

The Sun was founded in May 1950 as the Las Vegas Free Press. It was started by typographical workers who were locked out by the Las Vegas Review-Journal when they tried to form a union. Two months later Greenspun bought the fledgling paper, then located at North Main Street and Bonanza Road.

"When Hank told me he had bought the paper for $1,000 along with other financing commitments, I just could not believe what he had done," Barbara Greenspun said. "We were fortunate that the paper came with a $2,500 account that helped us keep it going.

"The difference between the Sun then and now is that then we had a wonderful staff that worked for peanuts, and not always in the nicest of buildings. Now we have a wonderful staff of top editors and reporters, enough money to pay good salaries and a really nice building to work in."

In December 1950 Hank Greenspun moved the Sun to its then-permanent home at 900 S. Main St. In November 1963 that building burned to the ground, and the paper operated for four years in a temporary facility at 900 S. Commerce St. behind the gutted-out Sun plant.

It was there that the Sun, long known as a crusading publication against government misconduct, earned yet another place in American newspaper lore. It was written and edited in Las Vegas, transmitted to various plants in Los Angeles, and printed and flown back daily to Las Vegas for dawn delivery.

The Sun in 1967 moved to its home at 121 S. Highland Drive, which in the 1980s was renamed Martin L. King Boulevard in honor of the slain civil rights leader.

Hank Greenspun and his family entered into a joint operating agreement with the Review-Journal in 1989, the year Hank died. The move combined the circulation, advertising, production and promotion operations, allowing the newspapers to maintain separate and independent newsrooms. The Sun became an afternoon newspaper at that time.

As a result of the agreement, the huge Martin L. King Boulevard plant became too large for the streamlined Sun staff, which was moved to a temporary two-story structure at 800 S. Valley View Blvd.

"We intended to stay at that location for about two years, but it turned into 11," said Sun Editor and President Brian Greenspun, Hank's son.

"We looked for a while at a site in downtown Las Vegas, but in the final analysis the best place was in Henderson, close to our other properties -- a site with great freeway access and a wonderful environment in which people could work. When we look out the window of our newsroom, we see the entire Las Vegas Valley that we cover."

Brian, who grew up in the newspaper business, said the growth from the Sun's humble beginnings can only be attributed "to the people who worked hard to make it that way and to the community at large. We have what I believe is the newsroom that will be the envy of newspapers all over the country."

The Sun occupies not only the 22,000-square-foot third story of the new building but also has a television studio on the first floor, where the newspaper's archives also are maintained.

The newsroom is equipped with a state-of-the-art computer system, where reporters will not only write their stories but also have access to the Internet and other high-tech services. All of the fixtures, including desks, chairs and filing cabinets, are new and designed to be ergonomically safe.

All correspondence, news releases and other documents may now be sent to 2275 Corporate Circle Drive, Henderson, NV 89014, or to the Las Vegas Sun, P.O. Box 98970, Las Vegas, NV, 89193-8970.

Mail recently sent to 800 S. Valley View Blvd. will be forwarded to the new address. Further use of the old address could cause delays in the newsroom receiving time-sensitive announcements and other materials.

All phone numbers, including the Sun's longtime main number, 385-3111, are the same.