In the next few weeks, the home offices of Greenville Newspapers L.L.C., located in historic downtown Greenville will undergo a complete renovation including the installation of a new prepress color management system that will vastly improve the newspaper’s color reproduction.

Greenville Newspapers owns and operates The Greenville Advocate, The Luverne Journal, The Lowndes Signal, the Butler County News, the Butler Express and the Bonus Express and the website, www.greenvilleadvocate.com.

The Greenville Advocate was founded in 1865 by Gen. J.B. Stanley, whose family owned the paper until Dec. 1995.

At that time, Boone Newspapers Inc, a community newspaper company that owns more than 35 publications in nine states and is headquartered in Tuscaloosa, purchased the newspaper from the Stanley heirs.

The building underwent a minor renovation at that time including the removal of the printing press. Currently all of Greenville Newspapers’ publications are printed in Andalusia, another affiliate of Boone Newspapers.

Now, nine years later, the building will be virtually gutted and rebuilt inside its old shell.

Included in the plans are the installation of more windows, a full service community conference room, two smaller conference rooms, a photo studio, an expanded newsroom and advertising area and numerous computer hardware and software upgrades.

&uot;Our main goal with this investment in infrastructure and technology is to provide a more efficient and productive environment for our employees, customers and visitors to conduct business in,&uot; said Greenville Newspapers’ president and publisher Dennis Palmer. &uot;Our newspaper should be a reflection of our community and those we serve and we want to make sure we’re representing Greenville and Butler County in the manner our readers, advertisers and the public expect us to.&uot;

Palmer also said the recent industrial announcements and the expected job and retail growth that will result from those, and expected future announcements, played a part in the decision to make the additional investment in the community.

&uot;This is an exciting time in the history of Greenville and Butler County and I firmly believe we’re in the early stages of a dramatic growth cycle,&uot; he said. &uot;We want to be ahead of that curve so that we can efficiently meet the needs of our current and future customers. We also want to maintain a significant presence in downtown Greenville, which is the heart of this community and we hope this will spur other businesses to make a similar investment.&uot;

In addition to renovations to the interior of the building, the exterior will see some changes with significant work being done on the rear of the building to add an awning and to also pave the back parking area. Several parking spaces will also be added on the Walnut Street side of the building.

&uot;This will create more area for employee parking and will free up parking in front of our building, which is very limited right now,&uot; Palmer said. &uot;An important part of quality customer service is convenience and we want it to be as convenient as possible for people to visit and do business with us.&uot;

Once the renovation is complete, The Advocate will hold an open house where the public will be invited to tour the facility.