E&P on Lee Lodge, plane

Fitz & Jen of Editor & Publisher share the info you helped unearth on the Lee Lodge and sale of the corporate jet. Read it here.

Lee will cut $100 million more

Sorry for the disappearing act, and thanks to everyone who kept the conversation going the past couple of weeks. Let's catch up on the latest Lee hijinks, shall we?

At the annual stockholder meeting on March 10, shareholders approved the reverse stock split. The stock price has hovered around 30 cents since (and the weeks before); the 52-week high was $12.50 and the low was 24 cents. Bigger than that, though, CFO Carl Schmidt said the company will reduce costs by more than $100 million. (Via e-mail tip)

The St. Louis Newspaper Guild reports that Lee's operating profit is 20 percent. Remember that when you have to take your unpaid time off. Capital Times Co. also is pretty profitable. (Via e-mail tip)

The New York Times is selling its jet. It's generating a lot more press than Lee's jet did. They're asking $9.5 million for the 1997 Dassault Falcon. Lee had a 13-seat 2006 Cessna 560XL Citation Excel. (The Swiss Air Force has a few of them too.) Lee's plane is now registered to Blackwell Aviation in Davenport. Lee's plane should have been worth more than $6 million.

What else did I miss?

No more plane updates

The Lee plane, now owned by Blackwell Aviation, used to be tracked by FlightAware. Well, the new owners don't want us to know where the plane is -- they've requested that tracking stop. Send an update if you see the Lee plane: The number on the tail is N890LE.

Lee plane in Florida

The Lee plane is on the move again. It made a trip earlier today from Davenport to Miami, then the Sarasota/Bradenton, Fla., airport. Another trip to a place where Lee doesn't own papers. What's going on?

I'm still looking for that Lee/Blackwell connection. Lee sold the plane at the beginning of this fiscal year to Blackwell Aviation LLC. Blackwell Aviation is owned by Rodney Blackwell, a real estate developer in Davenport. In fact, he owns 201 N. Harrison in Davenport -- home of Lee HQ. But that doesn't really answer why Blackwell would buy the Lee plane -- the only plane in the fleet. And, so far at least, it looks like all of the trips the plane has made have been Lee trips.

Return trip to Boston?

The Lee plan left Davenport around 5:30 p.m. Dec. 18 and flew to Bedford, Mass. -- just outside of Boston. It returned to Davenport at 1:15 p.m. Dec. 19. Then our little plane left Davenport again the next day around 10:45 a.m. and returned to Bedford, then back to Davenport a little after 4 p.m. the same day. Did someone forget a favorite pillow? Want more lobster? Certainly seems like a waste of time and money.

A reader pointed out this fun coincidence: A plane that belongs to MediaNews also made trips to Bedford, Mass. It arrived Dec. 17 at 12:13 p.m., and left early Dec. 18.

Lee plane makes trip to Boston

The Lee plane made a trip to Bedford, Mass., (near Boston) yesterday and is now about 45 minutes away from landing in Davenport. Boston? There aren't any Lee papers in/near Boston ...

News from Waterloo/Cedar Falls?

What's going on in Waterloo, Iowa, today? It looks like the Lee plane made a flight from Davenport to Waterloo a little after 9 this morning. Send tips, comments and information to lee.ent.watch@gmail.com.

What's the connection between Lee and Blackwell?

Photo Courtesy of FlightAware.com

A reader raises good questions: 

A quick Internet search reveals Blackwell is an LLC with one plane, the same one Lee recently "sold," with a business address identical to Lee's corporate address. So what gives? At the least, it appears that Lee's execs are flying on the same plane, whether they own it still or not.

It matters because when we were called into a mandatory meeting and informed of the cuts to our retirement benefits, one of the supervisors made sure to point out that corporate had sold the plane, implying that the belt-tightening an sacrifices were also being made at the top. It was a symbolic concession at best, but still served to ease some of the sting.

OK, I have to agree. What gives?

Earlier this week Mary Junck showed up at the Post-Dispatch. Sure enough, on Dec. 8 the plane -- the one in the picture -- left Davenport and landed in St. Louis 39 minutes later. On Dec. 10, the plane left St. Louis and 37 minutes later landed at Davenport. 

I've never been invited to Lee HQ or had a reason to stop by, but it's at 201 N. Harrison in Davenport. That six-story building is also home to an accountant, a Starbucks and a real estate developer. In fact, there's space to rent on the first and fourth floor of the building. So it's quite possible Blackwell Aviation LLC has an office in the same building, I'm just not sure where it is. And it's very possible and logical that Lee leases a plane from Blackwell ... evidently Blackwell's only plane. 

Anyone else have insight on the Blackwell/Lee relationship?

For sale: Lee Lodge; jet not included

What's going on up at the "Lee Lodge"? The Billings Blog found it back in August -- for sale.

It looks like Lambros Real Estate still has the Polson, Mont., lodge listed for $4.5 million. (A motivated seller might've dropped the price in the last four months.) That includes 6 acres on Flathead Lake, adjacent to the Polson golf course. There are five houses, three cabins, a duplex, indoor pool, tennis court, a conference center and a maintenance shop.

I'm not sure if Lee still has its corporate jet. In 2006, a Cessna Citation Excel was registered to Lee. That 13-seat plane (serial number 560-5628, N-number 890LE ) is now registered to Blackwell Aviation in Davenport, Iowa. That plane flew from the Spirit of St. Louis Airport to the Quad City International Airport 11 days ago. A trip from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch back to headquarters, perhaps? Looking at past flight activity, it looks like almost all of the flights correspond to a Lee paper. (Maybe it's time to learn a lesson from Detroit's automakers?)