The Prince George Citizen is moving.
After 54 years in its current location at 150 Brunswick St., the Citizen will soon be relocating to the second floor of the IWA building at the corner of Third Avenue and Winnipeg Street.
This is the latest step towards making sure one of the oldest businesses in Prince George will continue to thrive as the community's newspaper of record.
"There are some longtime employees, including me, who have been here for 25 years and more and it's going to be hard to walk away," said Colleen Sparrow, publisher of The Prince George Citizen. "And there will be lots of emotions but with that there is the excitement of going to our new location."
There's been lots of changes in the newspaper industry over the years and The Citizen needs to change with it, Sparrow added.
"This is a new chapter in our lives, a new page in our paper, where we've found a really great space that is a good fit for us and brings us all closer together as the team that we are. We have a really strong team and I'm looking forward to the new us in the new space."
The Citizen will remain in transition for the better part of March and the hope is the new office will be open for business by the end of the month.
The new owners of The Citizen building is Kopar Administration, which provides employment services to people in the community and is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
Kopar has existed in two locations in downtown Prince George. The head office is at 200-1268 Fifth Ave., and their second location is 1511 Third Ave. The two locations will amalgamate to better serve their clients at 150 Brunswick St.
The doors to their new facility will open April 3 and house the 42-member staff under one roof.
Contracts through WorkBC and Employment Services of BC, funded by the province and the ministry of social development and the federal government, have brought about the need for a bigger space. Kopar has about 10,000 square feet currently and will soon have 16,000 square feet at their new facility.
"We are going to try to make our spaces even more inviting and more functional so we can provide better service for our clients," said Rob Glavina, human resources manager of Kopar.
"The WorkBC office will be operational April 3 and the Fifth Avenue office will move over soon after so all services will be at 150 Brunswick St. by the beginning of May."
