NBCU Reveals New West Coast HQ Plans After Scuttling Earlier Project

Facility, expected to finish construction in late 2013, will sit on Universal’s Studios lot.

Two weeks after abandoning plans an expansive new facility, NBCUniversal has unveiled plans for a state-of-the-art headquarters for its West Coast television operations.

The 150,000 square-foot facility, formerly occupied by Technicolor, will sit on Universal's Studios lot and house the L.A. bureaus of NBC News and Telemundo, along with local broadcast stations KNBC and KVEA. According to NBCUniversal, the new headquarters will be an "all high-definition facility, incorporating the latest technology to create a world-class home of journalism and digital content production."

Construction on the project is slated for completion late next year.

In mid-December, NBCU terminated an agreement with Thomas Properties Group, Inc. to build a new facility, tentatively called MetroStudios@Lankershim, that would have been built above a subway station in Universal City. In an SEC filing issued by Thomas Properties on Tuesday, the company alluded to changing requirements for the project.

"In light of NBCU's changing requirements for office and post-production space, the planned MetroStudios@Lankershim project was not considered economically viable at this time," it said.

NBCU agreed to pay Thomas Properties a $9 million "breakup fee" for terminating work on the facility.

Comments