MTV Leaving Famous Times Square Studio

By Germain Lussier on August 11th, 2009

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TRL host Carson Daly and Britney Spears in the TRL Studios (New York Times)

The memories are endless. Eminem waving to the fans, the Jonas Brothers shutting down traffic. Blocks and blocks closed for the Backstreet Boys and so many more. Well, MTV’s 2nd floor glass studio that was most famously used for “Total Request Live” will soon be no more.

The New York Post exclusively reports that Viacom, which owns MTV, didn’t renew the lease for that studio space when it renewed several floors of office space in New York’s Times Square. So while the MTV offices will remain at 1515 Broadway, that space is about to hit the open market and it’s estimated that its worth has increased ten fold since it was originally leased in 1997.

“We’re taking it back from MTV at end of year,” SL Green Leasing Director Steven Durels said to the Post. “We’re actively marketing it, and we think it will be the crowning touch of the retail development we’ve done since we bought the building.”

When MTV’s TRL ended in November 2008, it marked the end of a decade plus of music memories in the space. Now, however, the channel doesn’t have as much need for the studio.

The studio, which measures 22,216-square-feet, also comes with the space below it, currently used for an MTV store. The prices are astronomical – an estimated $450 a square foot for the studio and a $1,000 a square foot for the 1,624-square-foot space at street level, which adds up to $11.6 million per year in rent.

In today’s economy, it makes sense to cut off that amount of money if it’s not being used. But still – for those of us who put on MTV at 4 p.m. when we got home from school, it’s a sad day.