CBS confirms potential sale of broadcast center as developers show interest

CBS Entertainment president and CEO George Cheeks confirmed that the company is mulling both a sale of its sprawling West 57th Street Broadcast Center and a move to a different Manhattan location — as we exclusively reported last week.

Cheeks wrote the next day in an internal memo to staff that was obtained by The Post’s Alexandra Steigrad, “It is true that the company has retained a real estate consultant to evaluate selling the BC and to identify a new home for our teams there.”

Although the memo wasn’t meant for outside consumption, it was a refreshing departure from the common practice of telling employees that accurate press reports about corporate decisions were all wrong.

Cheeks told his troops that CBS was “in the early stages of this process” and a timeline for any “potential sale, design and build of a new facility and an eventual move is very hard to predict.”

But a source told us that at least three major commercial developers/landlords have expressed preliminary interest in making a deal with CBS.


From left, George Cheeks, DeDe Lea, Shari Redstone and Norah O'Donnell in April.
From left, CBS CEO George Cheeks, DeDe Lea, Shari Redstone and Norah O’Donnell in April.
Paul Morigi/Getty Images for White House Correspondents Insider

The network won’t leave the block altogether. It’s staying put in 281,000 square feet at SL Green’s 555 W. 57th St., a modern office and studio building across the street, where it signed an early five-year lease renewal in January.