Former Miami Herald HQ To Be Demolished

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Downtown Miami and Biscayne Bay will soon look very different.

The Genting Group has received a permit to demolish the former Miami Herald building.

The Herald's corporate parent, the McClatchy Co., sold its 13.9-acre bayside downtown property on May 27, 2011, for $236 million to the Genting Group which had plans for a $3.8 billion destination resort with a casino. Mounting opposition forced the company to scale back those plans. Phase one of the project will now focus on a luxury hotel, two condominiums and a promenade along Biscayne Bay.

The Herald building has served as the set for several major motion pictures. Paul Newman and Sally Field acted in the city room in the film, "Absence of Malice." Kurt Russell jumped across Herald news desks in the movie, "The Mean Season," and Sean Connery used the building as a prop in "Just Cause."

Genting said the old Herald building will be demolished by the end of 2013.

The staff of the Miami Herald moved into their new headquarters in Doral last May.