New London ― The Day announced Monday that its newspaper staff will move to a new headquarters in the former Frontier Communications building on State Street, across from City Hall.

The move, which has not yet been given a definite date, will be a big change for the staff that for generations has been working out of its headquarters on Eugene O’Neill Drive. The announcement of the move was made about nine months after The Day sold its complex at 47 Eugene O’Neill Drive to High Tide Capital LLC for $1.875 million.

“The new office will be a beautiful space, a great place to come to work,” Tim Dwyer, The Day’s president and publisher, said in a memo to staff Monday afternoon. “Our new vibrant home sends a message to you, our dedicated employees, and to the community that we are in a place to continue our vital mission as the region’s independent, locally owned, community media company for a long time to come.”

The Day has been allowed to stay in its longtime offices under an agreement with High Tide, the Bangor, Maine, development company that in July completed a deal to purchase the Frontier building at 200-208 State St. for $825,000. High Tide has plans to convert The Day building as well as the adjoining former Citizens Bank space into a hotel, restaurants and apartments, according to preliminary plans announced earlier this year.

The Day will occupy one floor of the Frontier building, and High Tide will be building out the more than 10,000 square feet of office space to accommodate about 100 employees. The space will include a cafeteria, outdoor patio, studio for podcasts and video production as well as meeting area for teleconferencing. The only personnel who will not occupy the offices will be those involved in distributing the newspaper.

The Frontier building previously was occupied by Southern New England Telephone for many years before AT&T sold its landline business.

“I was committed to keeping our operation in historic downtown New London,” Dwyer said in his memo. “The Day has been a fierce proponent of protecting and preserving the historical downtown district. We were happy to sell our own historic building to High Tide Capital because I knew that the company shared that vision and commitment and passion for the historic district that The Day has.”

During an interview at his office Monday afternoon, Dwyer said the move is expected to save The Day a substantial amount of money in such areas as heat and electricity compared to the costs of maintaining the newspaper’s current 64,000-square-foot facility.

Dwyer said The Day looked at three separate properties before deciding on the Frontier location, which was late to the game as High Tide negotiated its purchase. Dwyer signed a 10-year lease agreement with High Tide on Monday.

“High Tide is great to work with,” Dwyer said in the interview. “They have a great vision for what they want to do with downtown. We are honored to be in partnership with them.”

Dwyer said he believes the new space “will lead to more collaboration between employees, departments and the company as a whole” and will “continue our transformation from a daily newspaper to a community multi-media news, information and marketing company.”

Izaskun Larrañeta, The Day’s executive editor, said she was feeling excited about the move, adding that it demonstrated the newspaper’s “commitment to local news reporting” and to New London.

Brian Hallenbeck, a senior reporter at The Day, agreed the move was positive sign as it showed the newspaper could sustain itself through difficult times in the news industry.

Dwyer said The Day has succeeded in holding its newsroom together and having a loyal base of readers.

“The new, modern space will represent to the public that The Day truly is a successful community media company,” Dwyer said in his memo.

l.howard@theday.com