MSNBC moving

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MSNBC is moving out of it's Secaucus studios, to be with the rest of the NBC family in Rockefeller Plaza.

 

MSNBC studios to break Secaucus lease nearly a year early

Monday, May 14, 2007

By JOURNAL STAFF

 

SECAUCUS - Until recently, studios here served as the television home of now-fired shock jock Don Imus. But now Imus is gone - and soon MSNBC will be, too.

 

As first reported in The Jersey Journal last year, MSNBC's studios in Secaucus will be packing up and moving across the Hudson River to New York City, joining their NBC colleagues at Rockefeller Plaza as part of a cost-saving measure. MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines said they're expected to be gone by the end of the year.

 

MSNBC opened the Secaucus studios in 1996, and its lease runs until next April. But New Jersey gave the company about $7.8 million in grants to move in and stay at least 15 years. MSNBC will be at least three years short of that, and state officials aren't happy.

 

State Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Mercer, has introduced a bill to force companies to refund money and tax breaks if they don't uphold such incentive deals.

 

It passed the state Senate and on Thursday cleared the Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee. Turner said she hopes it will be approved by the full body before the June recess.

 

"If they made a commitment to remain in New Jersey for specific period of time, and now that they found a better offer, they should have to pay a price for it and not just receive less credit," she said.

 

The state paid MSNBC grants equal to 80 percent of the state income taxes paid by its Garden State employees. New Jersey's Economic Development Authority also purchased and leased equipment to MSNBC and its sister business cable station CNBC, saving the companies the sales taxes it would have paid on those purchases.

 

The company isn't refunding any money to the state, said Glenn Phillips, a spokesman for the authority. The state instead will reduce future business grants to CNBC's facility in Englewood Cliffs by $2.3 million.

 

Meanwhile, the New York City Industrial Development Agency earlier this year approved $1.5 million in tax abatements for MSNBC for moving 421 Secaucus jobs to Rockefeller Center.

 

Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell said Turner is "100 percent right."

 

"It's unfair that we give taxpayer dollars to bring a business to this state - and I don't disagree with that - but then if they don't uphold their end of the bargain they should definitely give that money back."

 

Elwell said he didn't know what would become of MSNBC's studios but hoped another television station would make use of it.

 

"It's a very, very large building in a terrific location," he said. "Property in Secaucus is very valuable. I'm sure somebody will take it."

 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Yeah, they've been talking about this for awhile, but I thought it was the CNBC building they were moving to.