Gannett Co. Inc. intends to sell property next to The Honolulu Advertiser's Kaka'ako news building in a renewed effort to capitalize on real estate that largely has been unused since the newspaper's printing operations moved to Kapolei four years ago.

The Advertiser's owner retained commercial real estate brokerage firm CB Richard Ellis to market the nearly 3-acre parcel without an asking price. Preliminary marketing is slated to begin next week.

The move follows two previous unrealized plans over the past three years to find a developer interested in redeveloping the site, potentially including the historic News Building, in partnership with Gannett.

Gannett's new sale plan involves land bordering Kapi'olani Boulevard and South and Kawaiaha'o streets comprising a former press building and existing parking lot, but excludes the roughly 80,000-square-foot News Building.

"The land's been sitting essentially unused except for small pieces since we made the significant investment to move printing and distribution operations to Kapolei," said Advertiser President and Publisher Lee Webber.

One condition of a sale is that a buyer provide several hundred parking spaces for Advertiser use. A small distribution operation still maintained on the property would be moved.

It's difficult to estimate a fair market value for the property because of the recent downturn in Hawai'i's real estate market, reduced buyer demand and constrained capital markets.

But based on prior sales in the area, the land conservatively could raise more than $20 million during a challenging financial time for the newspaper industry in which The Advertiser recently laid off 81 employees and is pursuing more cutbacks through voluntary job reductions.

Gannett, publisher of 85 U.S. daily newspapers, also has been reducing jobs and expenses in an effort to improve finances. But the company has long envisioned tapping the value of its prime urban Honolulu property.

The most recent idea to redevelop the site began forming in 1998 and 1999 when Advertiser officials worked on a master plan that included the construction of a new printing plant in Kapolei.

Part of that vision was realized when the $82 million facility with state-of-the-art presses opened in 2004.

In early 2005, Gannett began publicly seeking a partner to redevelop the News Building site in an effort with commercial real estate firm Grubb & Ellis CBI. That initiative was launched near the height of Hawai'i's residential real estate market and a condominium tower development boom in Kaka'ako, but the plan didn't lead to a deal.

Then in late 2007, Gannett retained CB Richard Ellis with the idea to again solicit redevelopment proposals, but the plan didn't move ahead to a point where bids were sought.

Scott Gomes, executive vice president of investment properties with CB Richard Ellis, said that trying to sell land in a down market could attract a buyer with a good sense of timing and a long-term view of economic and real estate cycles, in part because high-rise projects typically take two to three years to plan and complete.

"You don't always plan to develop a property at the top of the cycle," he said. "You develop a property when you are anticipating the market to come back up."