NBC Breaks Ground On Boston Media Center

NBCUniversal on Thursday broke ground on the NBCUniversal Boston Media Center — a new multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art, 160,000-square-foot news and content creation center for its Boston properties: WBTS (NBC), WNEU (Telemundo), NBC Sports Boston and NECN.

The new facility will be located at ‪189 B Street in suburban Needham, Mass. The stations’ new media center was formerly the General Dynamics building and is located in the Needham Crossing Business Park, part of the N-Squared Innovation District. The new building will bring together approximately 390 NBCUniversal employees from four separate offices across the Boston area and New England.

Boston-area employees were joined by NBCUniversal executives, state and local elected officials, as well as Needham business partners to celebrate what NBCU called the largest investment made — ever — by a media company to build  the most advanced broadcast facility in the Greater Boston area.

The new media center will house six studios and will “distinctively celebrate the individuality of four individual NBCUniversal businesses” while allowing employees to enjoy and access open spaces, quiet/focus rooms, mothering rooms, a doctor-on-demand room, working café and coffee bars as well as a healthy market and kitchen, two outdoor courtyards, and a dedicated fitness facility. Additional building and technology features will be announced closer to the media center’s unveiling in the fall of 2019.

“The creation of our new media center represents the forward momentum and our continued commitment to local news to serve Boston and New England audiences, regardless of language,” said Mike St. Peter, president of NBCU Boston. “Together with NBC Sports Boston, our teams will be able to strengthen their already strong news collaborations to super serve our audiences with quality news and information.”

“We are thrilled that NBC Sports Boston will join our sister stations NBC10 Boston, Telemundo Boston and NECN in a new world-class, state-of-the-art media center next year,” said Princell Hair, general manager of NBC Sports Boston. “This co-location will allow us the opportunity to collaborate and take advantage of the best, most up-to-date technology to deliver the best news, sports and content to our viewers and fans across multiple platforms.”

In attendance to celebrate the stations’ milestone were Rep. Denise Garlick of District 13 of Norfolk, and Assistant Secretary of Business Development and International Trade for the State of Massachusetts Nam Pham. Also in attendance were Dan Matthews, Town of Needham’s chair of the Needham Select Board; Needham Town Manager Kate Fitzpatrick; and Greg Reibman, president of the Newton-Needham Chamber of Commerce, as well as Chuck Tanowitz, director of the N-Squared Innovation District.

The NBCU properties are working with Boston area’s Lee Kennedy Construction as well as Gardiner & Theobald Construction and architecture, design, planning and consulting firm Gensler. At unveiling, NBCU said the NBCUniversal Boston Media Center “will feature the most cutting-edge broadcast technology and will be designed to be energy efficient.”