Telemundo unveils plans for new $250M headquarters

Telemundo unveiled plans on Tuesday for its new global headquarters, a complex within the Prologis Beacon Lakes industrial park in northwest Miami-Dade County. 

NBCUniversal and Comcast will invest more than $250 million in the 560,000-square-foot development. Telemundo will consolidate about 1,300 jobs currently housed at buildings throughout the county into the two-building, 560,000-square-foot campus. Brian Smith, Mike Davis and Audley Bosch of Cushman & Wakefield represented Telemundo in the build-to-suit lease, according to a press release.

The project broke ground Tuesday morning.

Last week, Prologis sold 37 acres of undeveloped land within Beacon Lakes to SunTrust, which will be Telemundo’s landlord. SunTrust Equity Funding also closed on a $185 million loan for the property, west of the Florida Turnpike along Northwest 25th Street.

Terms of the lease were not disclosed, but in the press release Cushman & Wakefield said it was “likely the most valuable lease in Florida history.”

Telemundo site map (click to enlarge)

The development will house the division’s offices, broadcast and production operations, including the Telemundo Network, Telemundo Studios and Telemundo International, as well as the cable network NBC UNIVERSO and its digital media operations. Telemundo’s new digs will include an advanced production facility, network operations center, set design operations, post-production facilities and more than 100,000 square feet of executive offices. Shows such as the Nuevo Dia morning show, Al Rojo Vivo, and Novela productions will be produced there, Cushman & Wakefield said. The facility is slated to open in 2018.

In a press release, Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and NBCUniversal International Group, said the investment underscores the company’s commitment to the Hispanic market in the United States. “Our new global headquarters will fold all of our division’s offices and production studio spaces into one state-of-the-art facility that will help us do business in a more collaborative way,” Conde said.

Telemundo, which was purchased by NBCUniversal in 2010, currently has studios at 7355 Northwest 41st Street. Records show that SunTrust paid just more than $22 million for the portion of Beacon Lakes. The industrial park spans 478 acres and home to Ryder Logistics, Panalpina and Amazon. – Katherine Kallergis