Paramount Advances CBS Broadcast Center Redevelopment Amid $8B Skydance Merger
Paramount Global is moving closer to redeveloping its storied CBS Broadcast Center, even as the media giant weathers a wave of political blowback, including a recent $16M settlement with President Donald Trump and the sudden cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
The controversies have cast uncertainty over the fate of the Manhattan West Side property, but the media giant is moving closer to firming up its plans with the selection of three developers as finalists, Bisnow has learned.
The Gotham Organization and Lincoln Property Co. are two of the contenders vying to redevelop the Hell's Kitchen site, according to multiple sources familiar with the process. A third, unnamed developer is also in contention, according to one of the sources, who declined to disclose the firm's identity.
With the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approving Skydance’s $8B merger with Paramount — expected to close within weeks — these developers have advanced to the final round of a two-year-long selection process for the full-block property spanning 10th to 11th avenues between West 56th and 57th streets.
Since the middle of 2023, the bidding process has been led by a CBRE team of Vice Chairman Doug Middleton and Executive Vice President Eric Negrin. Former CBRE Head of NYC Capital Markets Darcy Stacom had been working with Middleton and Negrin before leaving the company to start her own firm.
Spokespeople for CBRE, Gotham and Paramount all declined to comment when reached by Bisnow on Thursday. Lincoln didn't respond to multiple requests seeking comment.
Sources told Bisnow the bidding process had slowed amid heightened scrutiny of CBS and Paramount, but with the Skydance merger receiving the FCC's green light, they expect redevelopment plans to regain momentum.
The political and corporate turbulence that has swirled around Paramount and CBS in recent months has been weighing down progress on the merger and the redevelopment.
On July 2, CBS agreed to pay Trump $16M to settle a lawsuit over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. Last week, it abruptly canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a move critics say — and Colbert himself implied — was motivated more by political pressure than Paramount's stated justification of a “purely financial decision.”
Paramount tapped CBRE in 2023 to explore joint ventures for the 161K SF site, specifically seeking minority partners who could spearhead as much as 1.1M SF of new development if the site was rezoned, according to a request for qualifications first reported by Bisnow.
Gotham Organization’s selection comes as little surprise.
The Manhattan-based firm has led large-scale mixed-income developments across the city, including Gotham Point in Long Island City, The Suffolk on the Lower East Side and The Maybury at Hudson Yards. Gotham has frequently worked with public agencies and navigated the city’s rezoning process — experience that is explicitly called for in the RFQ.
Lincoln Property Co., on the other hand, is a more unconventional finalist. The Dallas-based developer is known nationally for its life sciences, office and mixed-use developments, such as Seaport Circle in Boston and The Star, a $2B mixed-use development in Frisco, Texas, that is the headquarters of the Dallas Cowboys.
While it has a presence in New York, it has not historically been viewed as a major player in the city’s public-private development arena.
Its selection suggests Paramount may be prioritizing national development firepower and financial capacity, or that Lincoln is seeking to make a major play in the New York market through a high-profile anchor project.
The nine-building campus has been home to CBS News since the 1950s and currently houses productions like The Drew Barrymore Show and Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. Paramount has signaled it intends to relocate its studio operations elsewhere, though no destination has been finalized.
The redevelopment effort comes as Paramount has streamlined its real estate holdings. The company sold its Black Rock headquarters for $760M in 2021 and its CBS Studio Center campus in Los Angeles for $1.8B the same year.
Across the street from the Broadcast Center, Paramount renewed its lease for 186K SF at SL Green’s 555 West 57th St. in 2023 for five years, ensuring its presence in the neighborhood even as it prepares to remake its longtime campus.
UPDATE, 7:05 P.M. ET: This story has been updated to reflect the FCC's approval of the merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media.
