The News had partially owned the Regent Street and Main Street properties for decades, in partnership with the Salt Lake Tribune. In November of last year, the News obtained all of the property in a real-estate and cash swap with the Tribune. As part of the deal, the Tribune obtained property on Gale Street, about 9 acres on 340 West between 500 South and 600 South. The Gale Street property also consisted of buildings for a printing press and mailroom.

"We traded our interest in Gale Street for their interest in Regent Street," Wall said.

The Gale Street property, too, has been sold, although Tribune Editor Nancy Conway relayed through an assistant that she did not have enough information on the sale to comment for the story Friday. Dean Singleton, head of MediaNews Group Inc., the newspaper chain which owns the Tribune, was in Europe and unavailable to comment.

The News and Tribune have printing facilities in West Valley City and no longer use the Regent Street and Gale Street properties. The Regent Street property was worth between $3 million and $3.5 million, Wall said, and the Gale Street property was worth $7 million. The Tribune gave the News money to equalize the property swap.

The appraisal for the Regent Street property did not include demolition costs and hazardous waste cleanup.

The LDS Church gave the Deseret News a "fair market price" for the property, Wall said. The Deseret News is owned by the LDS Church, and selling the property to a nonprofit entity of the church was the "appropriate" option for the newspaper.

The newspaper's management was not interested in demolishing the property and building a theater.

"We're not developers," Wall said. "We don't do that. It's something we don't have competence in."

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com