Iconic Columbia Flier Building For Sale

The iconic Columbia Flier building, with its sloping side glass panels and triangular and square structure, is now for sale after being vacant for more than a year, according to Karen Cherry, a real estate agent handling the sale.

How would you like to see the Flier Building used?

"There are a lot of great things about the building," said Cherry, an agent who works out of the Baltimore office of Cushman Wakefield, a global real estate firm based in New York City. "When you say, 'the Flier building,' everyone knows what it is. That's a good thing."

The 29,500 square foot building and its land were assessed in 2011 for $2.768 million, according to Maryland property search data.

The building was last sold in 1998 when Patuxent sold it to an arm of the Tribune Co. for $2.56 million as part of its merger with the newspaper conglomerate.

The Flier building was designed by architect and Columbia resident Bob Moon in 1976 and was completed in 1978 to house Zeke Orlinsky's Patuxent Publishing Company.

At the time, Moon's wife, Jean Moon, was the manager of the Flier. From 1978 to 2011, the building housed the offices of Patuxent Publishing, which published the Flier, but in February of 2011, the offices were relocated to an office suite on Sterrett Place.

In an interview with , Bob Moon said he had hoped it would become a community space or perhaps an art studio. In the video, Moon described how he snuggled the structure into the side of the hill, partly giving it its unique shape.

"The thought process that went into it was to economize every place I could possibly economize," said Moon. "So that's why, instead of having windows and brick and all this kind of stuff, I chose those metal panels that are on the building that are glazed with glass and they don't need any maintenance."

"It was the first green building in Columbia, and we didn't even know about green when I did it," added Moon.

Green features include pits underneath the parking lot that collect rainwater and interior areas lighted with indirect light, he said.

"Jean helped me," said Moon, of his wife. "This is how I felt about her paper and our relationship and wanting to do something the best I could do."

Cherry said she has not received an offer on the the building, which has been on the market for a couple of weeks, but believes it would work well for a company that needs office space. It has two floors, a full studio, a loading dock and a common reception area, according to Cherry.

"It could be an office user who might happen to get a couple of deliveries per week," said Cherry. "Or it could be somebody who buys it as an investment and divides it out into different uses for tenants."

She said the building required some work, "The carpet is well worn and it could use a fresh coat of paint."