NBC Sports is moving into Stamford.
Gov. Dannel Malloy made the announcement at 11 a.m. on Tuesday at 1 Blachley Road in Stamford, which will be the new home of the NBC Sports Group.
The project is expected to begin in September 2012, create 450 jobs and allow room for the company to grow in the future.
“This new campus is about bringing people together to maximize production, creativity and efficient teamwork,” Mark Lazarus, Chairman of NBC Sports Group, said in a statement. “However, this initiative would not have been possible without the financial support of Governor Malloy’s ‘First Five’ program and the local support provided by Mayor Pavia, who we look forward to working with for many years to come.”
NBC Sports Group will also build a studio for the NHL Network that will house most of the network’s personnel and will create additional jobs in Connecticut, in addition to the 450 amount.
Malloy said the company will consolidate much of its northeast operations, including its existing Connecticut workforce, at new studios and offices in the former Clairol factory in Stamford.
NBC Sports is the fourth company in the “First Five” initiative, a state program that provides incentives for the first five companies that bring more than 200 new jobs to Connecticut.
The state will provide a $20 million loan through the Department of Economic and Community Development, which administers “First Five.”
The building is the largest in Stamford, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
“This is a terrific project for the city and state, and one that I am proud to support as the fourth ‘First Five.’ The companies that are participating in this economic development program are job producers, and NBCUniversal has been doing that since it first arrived in Connecticut,” Malloy said. “Stamford has been home to NBCUniversal television production since 2008 when it retrofitted the Rich Forum Theatre in downtown to create the Stamford Media Center..”
The 32-acre site, located near Interstate 95, will include office space for NBC Sports, NBC Olympics, NBC Sports Digital, VERSUS (to be renamed the NBC Sports Network on Jan. 2), and the Comcast Sports Management Group, which oversees the NBC Sports Group’s 14 regional networks. The NBC Sports Group will also use the site to construct numerous state-of-the-art studios to house the company’s growing need for studio content.
The first three companies to take part in the “First Five” program — CIGNA, TicketNetwork, and ESPN — were announced over the summer.
NBC Connecticut is part of NBC Universal.
