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Tom Hanson: It's moving day for Bonita Daily News office

By TOM HANSON (Contact)

Originally published — 4:16 p.m., June 23, 2007
Updated — 10:50 a.m., June 24, 2007

Moving is normally an unwelcome task.

The staffs of the Bonita Daily News, The Banner and Vista Semanal couldn’t be more delighted. “We’re moving on up,” as the Jeffersons sang.

Well, it’s not exactly the penthouse, but the staffs are moving to the second floor of the North Bay Village complex, at 26381 South Tamiami Trail in Bonita Springs.

Gone are the good ol’ days of being on Bonita Beach Road in the Sunshine Plaza.

“It will be a time I shall refer to in my memoirs as, ‘My days on the strip.’¥” reporter Jessie Bonner said.

For nearly 17 years, this popular strip mall was home for your favorite newspapers.

“I don’t know what I’ll say now that I can’t tell people we’re between the hardware store and the Greek restaurant,” reporter Brad Kane said.

The new office has a few landmarks, too. It’s in the same plaza as the First Watch and Bonefish Grill restaurants.

As of Friday, though, there wasn’t a Bonita Daily News sign on the new building. Hopefully, we will have one soon. It’s already caused some confusion.

Sportswriter Scott Hotard went out a few days ago in search of the new home. He came back awhile later saying he couldn’t find it.

“It’s in the same complex as the Bonefish on the east side of 41,” I replied

“Where were you two hours ago?” Hotard said.

There will be some disadvantages to the new location.

“I’ll miss being able to just cross the street to get to City Hall,” Kane said. “Of course, it also means that’s 22 months of crossing Bonita Beach Road by foot every day, and I never got clipped by a car. I win!”

As we boxed up the office, some of the longtime employees got teary-eyed. But these were tears of joy, not sadness. Bonita Bureau Chief Karie Partington remembers working in the old office in the Banner Plaza on Old 41 Road ... she says back when she was still in high school.

Over the years, many great newspapers were created out of that office thanks to its hard-working staff.

“We’re leaving behind a lot of memories but looking forward to making new ones,” Partington said. “Packing up brings to mind all the great people who have worked here, like Norma Jean Singleton, Don Goodwin, Walter Germann and Kay Smith, just to name a few.”

Smith, the longtime columnist, would’ve called the new office “posh,” Banner Editor Cathy Cottrill said.

The new office is so nice I thought for a second that we worked for the Bonita Springs Fire District. The Fire District has Station 4, which is affectionately known as the Taj Mahal by the Taxpayer Action Group. We have Caesar’s Palace, or should we say Dave Neill’s Palace, because the Bonita general manager has an office envious of a king.

But no one’s complaining (well, there is the issue of my desk still being in pieces.)

The office is complete with matching desks and color-coordinated chairs. We have phones with caller ID, plasma TVs and even a lunch room. The new digs are almost too nice. Reporters normally are more productive with poor lighting and a hodgepodge of desks and chairs, which was the motif of the old office.

“The cool thing about the old office is you can clearly tell it was put together from spare parts of other offices. I’m going to miss that disappointed look on people’s faces when they see that THIS is a newsroom,” Kane said. “I don’t know what I’ll do when people show respect over our new homogenized, state-of-the-art office. Maybe I’ll call my dad.”

If you do call dad or a friend make sure you tell him that we have moved. Not far. Just up the street, in the same building as the Bonefish restaurant ... Hotard.

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