Disney Publishing books it to the West Coast

Jiminy Cricket, they”™re leaving.

After five years in downtown White Plains, Disney Publishing Worldwide this month will close its headquarters at 44 S. Broadway and relocate most of its Westchester operations and employees here to the Disney company”™s native southern California. The company”™s book imprints division will return to Manhattan.

Disney Publishing executives did not respond to repeated calls to confirm and comment on the move, first reported earlier this year by Publishers Weekly. But the international publisher this summer notified the state Department of Labor that it would close its office in Westchester One, the county”™s oldest class-A office tower, on Sept. 30.

A total of 83 employees will be transferred from White Plains to Glendale, Calif., the company said in its required state notice, which indicated that no layoffs were planned. The relocation affects an additional five employees at Disney Publishing Worldwide”™s Fifth Avenue office in Manhattan.

In late 2007, the company, the world”™s largest publisher of children”™s books and magazines, moved 175 of its 225 employees from that same Manhattan office to the White Plains central business district. A Disney Publishing spokeswoman at the time said the move was made “to accommodate our future growth” in a facility that provided “a collaborative and creative work environment.” The publisher initially leased nearly 61,000 square feet at 44 S. Broadway and in early 2011 leased an additional 10,000 square feet, according to market reports by Westchester One”™s exclusive leasing agent, Cushman & Wakefield Inc.

But rapid changes in media and technology demanded that the company “look at our business holistically through the eyes of the consumer,” Disney Publishing told Publishers Weekly in a statement last spring. “This shift in focus requires a closer alignment and integration of Disney Publishing with the company”™s incredible content and distribution platforms, which are based in California.”

In Glendale, Disney Publishing will join Disney Consumer Products and Disney Interactive. The Glendale office is near Disney corporate headquarters in Burbank.

Publishers Weekly reported that about 50 employees of the Disney Book Group would be transferred back to New York City from White