After more than 12 years in its current location, Dallas Voice is moving to more efficient space
NEW DIGS | Dallas Voice and the rest of the Voice Publishing Co. family — DigitalSeltzer.com and Out North Texas — have moved to new offices at 1825 Market Center Blvd., Ste. 240. That’s the Chase building in the southeast corner of Turtle Creek Boulevard and Market Center Boulevard in the Design District. (Courtesy photo)
Dallas Voice Publisher Leo Cusimano said he’s excited about the newspaper’s move this week to a more efficient office space after nearly 12 years in it current location at 4145 Travis Street.
“It’s important to me to be located in the heart of the community,” Cusimano said.
The new office, in the Chase building on Market Center Boulevard, is a block from the end of Oak Lawn Avenue and just a few blocks from the heart of Oak Lawn. The new offices will be home to all of the Voice Publishing Co. products, including DigitalSeltzer.com and Out North Texas, as well as Dallas Voice.
Cusimano said he also likes that the building is home to a number of other LGBT-owned businesses, such as The Clutts Agency and the law offices of Rob Wiley. Legal Hospice of Texas is also located there.
“Tenants and other businesses here are super friendly,” said Kamesha Gibson, Legal Hospice’s development and PR coordinator. “It’s a thriving area in the heart of the Design District. Very chill.”
When Dallas Voice moved to its current location on Travis Street, the newspaper was looking for more space. But while the Travis Street office had plenty of space, it was already built out. Cusimano said the new space on Market Center Boulevard was an empty shell that had never been built out.
In the Travis Street office, a photo studio was an afterthought and wedged into an area also used for mail and storage. The empty shell in the new space allowed the Voice’s owners to design a photo studio that may also be used for video.
“This time, we’re moving for more efficient space and reasonable rent,” said Dallas Voice President Terry Thompson.
“Technology changed our operation.”
The Travis Street office has large paste-up bank tables that were used for layout. That furniture won’t be moving to the new location because everything is done on computer. Up through the move into the Travis Street office, portions of the paper were still pasted up in the office and driven over to the printer. For the last decade, digital images of the entire paper are uploaded to the printer via the Internet.
Better meeting space and more efficient storage space was also designed into the new office. Because the extensive photo library will be digitized, the Voice won’t need as much physical storage space. Old copies of the newspaper have moved to the archives at University of North Texas and are being digitized as well. (Those archives can be accessed online at TexasHistory.UNT.edu.)
Cusimano said that the public will be invited to see the Voice’s new offices soon. “We’ll have an open house once the dust settles,” he said. “This move is the next step in Voice Publishing’s evolution as a complete media company — new digs, new leadership and a new vision for the future, even as we maintain our ties to our history and the history of our community.”
Movers begin disassembling furniture at the Travis Street office on Friday and the new office should be reassembled by Sunday. Phones should switch over at 4 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 29.
Hopefully, everything will be up and running when the office reopens on Tuesday, Sept. 2. Not that there’s ever been a problem in moving phone service or email and Internet service, but if we don’t answer on Tuesday, try us on Wednesday.•
Our new address is 1825 Market Center Blvd., Suite 240, Dallas TX 75207. Our phone and fax remain the same. 214-754-8710. Fax 214-969-7271.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition August 29, 2014.
