Boston Globe property: Based in Dorchester since 1958: The news organization will move to new quarters on State Street.

The Boston Globe announced today that it will relocate from its Morrissey Boulevard headquarters to downtown Boston in 2017. Along with the planned transition of the media company’s printing facility to Taunton, this will shift all Globe operations out of Dorchester, while owner John Henry continues to solicit a buyer for the paper’s current 16.5-acre property.

In an internal memo to staff, Globe CEO Mike Sheehan called the move to 53 State Street, Exchange Place “a bit of a homecoming.” The paper left its Washington Street home in 1958 for Morrissey Boulevard, at which the paper earned 23 Pulitzer Prizes.

The Globe signed a letter of intent for the offices on the second and third floors of the Exchange Place building, where the editorial and business portions of the company are expected to take up residence, Sheehan’s memo said.

Location and accessibility were the primary motivators for the building’s selection, he said.

“For a journalistic enterprise, there is just no substitute for being able to walk to City Hall, the State House, and virtually every corporate headquarters in the city,” Sheehan wrote.

The move is expected to take place Jan. 1, 2017.

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The full text of the memo is below:

Over Memorial Day Weekend in 1958, The Boston Globe left our home on Washington Street's Newspaper Row and moved to Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester. The move was a catalyst for the most dramatic transformation in our history, both in the depth and quality of our journalism and in the scope of our media operations. Under the leadership of seven world-class editors, 23 Pulitzer Prizes were earned here, and we've grown from a single media offering to over a dozen print, digital, and broadcast properties.

Today, we signed a Letter of Intent with UBS to move our editorial and business operations to 53 State Street, Exchange Place. Assuming this leads to a signed lease, and we have every expectation that it will, the move will mark a bit of a homecoming, bringing BGMP back to the same neighborhood we vacated 58 years before. We plan on occupying the second and third floors, which are the largest floor plates in the building, integrating the former Boston Stock Exchange space with the glass tower that was built in 1985.

I have a particular fondness for the building, having moved another company there eight years ago. The reasons for choosing Exchange Place extend far beyond the inarguable fact that I am a creature of habit. First and foremost are location and accessibility. For a journalistic enterprise, there is just no substitute for being able to walk to City Hall, the State House, and virtually every corporate headquarters in the city. If you had to drop a pushpin on the single location that's most accessible by public transportation, this would be it. The MBTA's Blue Line and Orange Line have a stop under the building, the Green Line is a block away at Government Center, and the Red Line is just down the street at Downtown Crossing. The building is equidistant and walkable from the North Station and South Station commuter rail terminals as well as the commuter boat.

This move would materially change the answer to "where do you want to meet for lunch?" Cosi and Au Bon Pain are in the building, and there must be a few hundred other dining options within walking distance.

What excites me most about the move is the ability to design our space around the vision of where we want to go. We have retained Gensler (gensler.com) to help us create our new work environment, and they have begun the process of space planning and design.

I honestly believe there is no greater opportunity to redefine and transform the culture of The Boston Globe than to move to and work in the ideal location, right in the heart of the city, in an environment designed for the future of journalism. It worked for us when we moved to Morrissey Boulevard in 1958. And it'll be equally powerful when we move to Exchange Place which, if all goes according to plan, will be on January 1, 2017.