KRON’s home at 1001 Van Ness Ave.

KRON 4 owner Young Broadcasting wants to sell its longtime home at 1001 Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco and move to a smaller but more modern facility elsewhere in the Bay Area.

General Manager Brian Greif said the 90,000-square-foot building has much more space than the station needs.

“While we love the Van Ness building and the location, the space required for a state-of-the-art digital television station is a fraction of what we have here,” said Greif. “Relocating to a smaller facility will enable us to build a new platform to effectively serve our viewing audience within the San Francisco DMA with the best of today’s and tomorrow’s digital TV advances.”

Greif said the process to sell the building and find a new home will take about a year.

The story was first reported by media blogger Rich Lieberman, who attributed it to a “well placed station source,” and was later confirmed on the record by the SF Business Times and Broadcasting & Cable among others.

The Van Ness building was designed by Gardner Daily, who also was the architect for the Chronicle building at Fifth and Mission streets in San Francisco. Back then, the Chron and KRON had the same owners.

It was completed in 1967. Young Broadcasting bought the four-story structure in 2000 for $8.4 million, or $185 a square foot, the Business Times reported.