Boston Properties closed on its purchase of NPR’s current headquarters in the Northwest section of the District of Columbia. The price was $119 million.
Boston will lease back the property to NPR until the network’s new building is complete, which Boston expects could be in 2014 or 2015. The real estate developer is building NPR’s future home as well as buying its current building. NPR has been at its current site since 1994.
In March, NPR announced an acquisition of site just north of Capitol Hill in Northeast Washington. It said this week that all 600 of its Washington-based staff, encompassing journalism, multimedia, technical distribution, business and executive activities will be housed in the new facility.
The next step for NPR is to finance the project; funds will come from three sources, according to the Washington Business Journal: $80 million from the sale, third-party financing and a capital campaign. Redevelopment costs are expected to be somewhere between $100 million to $120 million.
NPR expects to net $80 million from the sale after paying off debt; it purchased the building in 1992 for $12.8 million, the paper reported.
The network will also now look for an architect. The new site is an art deco warehouse built in 1927 for Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company.
NPR said the new facility will include a 60,000-square-foot space for its news and multimedia operations and a public space for live shows and events.
