Martinelli Publications has agreed to sell its chain of nine weekly newspapers and the Yonkers building that houses their offices to the owner of a self-storage chain with a dozen warehouses in the region and an appetite for property in the city’s downtown.

Francesca Martinelli said her namesake publishing company is in contract with an entity of Tuck-It-Away Self Storage, which runs 12 warehouses in Manhattan, the Bronx and Newark, N.J.

Tuck-It-Away is owned by Nick Sprayregen, who has already acquired an adjacent property for an undisclosed price -- the 10,500-square-foot 25 Warburton Ave., previously occupied by Office Products Central Inc. and predecessor office products seller Federman & Miele. Robin Herko and Steve Lorenzo, both executive vice presidents with NAI Friedland Realty in Yonkers, represented both the buyer and seller in the 25 Warburton transaction.

Martinelli is the widow of Ralph R. Martinelli, who died in 2005. He continued his father’s Yonkers Times newspaper, now called the Yonkers Home News and Times, then expanded the business over more than a half-century by launching and acquiring additional weeklies.

The company has some 15 employees.

Today Martinelli Publications announced its sale in a front-page editorial in the current editions of its weeklies -- a day after the Business Journal called Martinelli seeking confirmation of the pending sale, which has generated buzz in local real estate circles.

Martinelli Publications is one of two regional newspaper groups to change hands this week. On Tuesday, Journal News publisher Gannett Company Inc. announced it was acquiring from Tribune Co. its Southern Connecticut Newspapers Inc., which publishes Greenwich Time and The Advocate of Stamford and Norwalk for a combined $73 million.

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