Demolition in full swing at old Kable Printing Plant in Mt. Morris

The demolition of roughly 25 percent of the old Kable Printing plant in Mt. Morris has brought tears to some of the former employees who worked there.

Several cars, driven by past employees, passed by the site at 404 S. Wesley Avenue on Friday morning as three excavators worked on demolishing the brick portion of the once-thriving business.

“I worked there 20 years. It’s just so sad,” said one person.

About 230,000 square feet of the facility will come down including the east end offices and the south side ink farm and press rooms.

Village Trustee and former Kable employee Jerry Stauffer said the work is being done to upgrade the property for a future sale. He said the demolition will likely take months.

The property has been owned by Phoenix Investors of Milwaukee since 2018 when that firm purchased it the 644,000 square-foot plant property for $200,000.

The plant was in operation for 114 years and shut down in 2013 after also operating under the names of Quebecor and World Color.

The portion of the facility that is being demolished has been remodeled “too many times” and needs to come down, Stauffer said.

Phoenix purchased the property from Mt. Morris Business Park LLC, Downey, Calif., which has no connection to the Village of Mt. Morris.

Mt. Morris Business Park LLC bought the property in March of 2013 for $375,000.

According to a 2018 article in the Milwaukee Business Journal, Phoenix Investors specializes in buying large, vacant industrial buildings, updating them, and leasing them to new tenants.

Quad/Graphics Inc., based in Sussex, Wisconsin, ceased production at the plant on May 13, 2011, ending 113 years of printing at that location.

The business was originally called Kable Brothers Printing and was founded in 1898 by twin brothers Harvey and Harry Kable. For decades Kable Printing was the village’s largest employer, at one time providing jobs for more than 2,000 people.

Quad/Graphics, Inc., acquired the Mt. Morris plant in January of 2010 when it purchased Worldcolor Press, Inc., for $1.3 billion.