The Marin Independent Journal announced today that it will abandon its home for the last 30 years in Novato and move into rented space in San Rafael this summer.

Publisher and President David Rounds said in a story printed today the IJ has signed a lease for office space in a four-story building at 4000 Civic Center Drive, across Highway 101 from the Northgate mall.

“This is an exciting move for us. Over the past year the IJ has moved printing to our parent company’s (Bay Area News Group) Color Liner presses in Concord. This gives us the ability to publish more color than before,” Rounds said in the story. “At the same time, much of the back office work for the IJ has been moved to Bay Area News Group’s shared services center. As a result of these moves we have four to five times more space than we need.”

The IJ’s 60,000-square-foot complex at 150 Alameda del Prado will be put up for sale, he said.

The 23,000-circulation paper’s editorial, advertising, circulation, finance and human resources departments will be based at 4000 Civic Center Drive in San Rafael.

The announcement confirms a report in April by Patch.com’s Brent Ainsworth, a former IJ editor. The paper once had a staff of 300 people, but is now down to about 100.

The IJ, Marin’s only daily newspaper, was based in downtown San Rafael for most of its 150 years. The newspaper moved from Fifth Avenue and B Street in San Rafael to a new Novato campus in 1981 after it was purchased by Gannett. The IJ was acquired by Denver-based MediaNews Group in 2000.