NBC Scraps Plan for Huge Los Angeles News Facility

NBCUniversal has decided to kill an ambitious plan to develop an office development and news production facility in the Universal City section of Los Angeles.

According to a recently released SEC filing from developer Thomas Properties Group, which was posted by Curbed LA, NBCUniversal agreed to terminate further work on a development that would have included space for KNBC, Telemundo-affiliate KVEA, and NBC News’ West Coast bureau, as well as “Access Hollywood.”

“In light of NBCU’s changing requirements for office and post-production space,” states the Thomas Properties filing, “the planned MetroStudios@Lankershim project was not considered economically viable at this time.”

As a result, NBCU has paid Thomas Properties a $9 million breakup fee.

When the project was first announced back in 2007, Curbed LA likened it to a West Coast answer for New York’s Rockefeller Center.

In 2010, with Conan O’Brien set to debut his new show on TBS, NBCUniversal announced that KNBC would move their news operations into the 60,000-square-foot studio that was home to O’Brien’s short-lived “Tonight Show.”

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