A decades-old, family-owned print shop at one of Traverse City’s busiest intersections is up for sale.

The Copy Shop at 713 E. Eighth Street owned by Dan Rickard (pictured above) is for sale for $1.55 million. The listing includes a turn-key copy and printing business in a 5,826-square foot building on a half-acre lot in the city’s C-2 zoning district. It’s located at the intersection of Eighth Street and Woodmere Ave. – a corridor that generates more than 14,000 vehicles per day.

The Copy Shop dates to 1982. Rickard bought the business in late 1999 from his parents, Jim and Kathleen Rickard, after going to work for them six years earlier.

“My dad said you can work here to figure out if this is what you want to do,” Rickard says.

The business previously operated in a leased building on East Front Street on the east end of downtown. But Rickard said it eventually outgrew that space, and around 2005 he started looking for a new home. He recalls driving by the site when he saw a “For Sale” sign being posted at the building, which had previously been a Butternut Bread outlet store.

“I called the number – I was the very first call,” Rickard says. “I was like ‘I can’t believe this is happening’.”

He bought the building in 2007 for $350,000, and moved in late that year. Beyond the print shop, the one-story building constructed in 1979 includes a separate 1,600-square foot area that he’s used for storage, that could be used as a separate commercial space or a storage area. There’s also ample on-site parking.

The city’s C-2 zoning district allows for a wide variety of commercial and/or residential uses. The district allows building heights up to 45 feet for buildings that include a residential component, and a maximum 30-foot commercial building height. It allows up 80 percent lot coverage and small rear and side-yard setbacks, according to city Zoning Administrator David Weston.

Rickard acknowledged there’s a wide range of potential uses for the property. But he hopes to see it remain as a print shop for the foreseeable future.

“It’s growing, slowly and organically – I’m very interested in sustaining the business,” Rickard says. “If somebody could come up with another location where the business had a chance of succeeding, that would be their choice.”

Rickard and one of his key employees will also stay on for six months to share their “institutional knowledge” of the business to assist in the transition to new ownership. The business has six full- and part-time employees.

Coldwell Banker Commercial Schmidt Realtors is listing the property through agent Scott Hardy.