NEW YORK CITY — MTV has announced that it will not be renewing the lease for its flagship Times Square studios and plans to vacate the space by the end of the year. The studio is located on the second floor of 1515 Broadway and was first leased by the network in 1997. It totals 24,240 square feet, with a small amount of that space residing on the building’s first floor.
A spokesperson for SL Green Realty Corp., which owns 1515 Broadway in a joint venture with SITQ, declined to comment for the story. The spokesperson did say that there has already been a lot of interest from a diverse group of tenants, including broadcasters and retailers for the prime Times Square office space. According to SL Green’s leasing site for 1515 Broadway, the asking price for the tenant space totals approximately $11.6 million — comprising $450 per square foot for the second-floor studio and $1,000 per square foot for the 1,624-square-foot ground-floor space.
MTV’s parent company, Viacom, anchors the 1515 Broadway tower as its global headquarters. The media giant recently renewed and expanded its lease through 2015 for approximately 1.3 million square feet of office space.
— Coleman Wood