Brookhaven-based Gray Television has inked a long-term lease agreement with NBCUniversal.
The deal sets the stage for the media giant to operate Gray Television’s new Assembly Studios project in Doraville, which is expected to employ several thousand people.
It’s a big win for Georgia’s booming film and television industry, which brought in a whopping $4 billion to its economy last year. NBCUniversal’s portfolio includes the NBC broadcast network, Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, Focus Features, Peacock streaming service, and a host of television networks such as Telemundo and Bravo.
Gray Television, which owns local TV stations across the country including Atlanta’s CBS46 News, announced the deal on Wednesday.
“Gray Television is thrilled to expand our already strong relationship with NBCU,” Gray’s Executive Chairman and CEO Hilton H. Howell Jr. said in a press release. “The new venture announced today places Gray’s own studio projects inside a large, first-class television and film production facility that will draw upon and will surely increase the large pool of skilled industry professionals who also make their homes here in the Atlanta metroplex.”
Assembly Studios is a 43-acre production complex that’s under construction as part of a broader 135-acre mixed-use development called Assembly Atlanta. That project is redeveloping the former General Motors Assembly Plant in Doraville, turning the site into a new town center with office buildings, a hotel, conference center, entertainment venues, apartments and townhomes.
Assembly Studios will feature soundstages, production offices, warehouse and mill buildings, event space and more. Next door is Third Rail Studios, which Gray Television also owns.
Per the agreement, NBCUniversal will manage all studio and production facilities within the Assembly Studios complex, including Third Rail Studios.
The arrangement is expected to leverage NBCUniversal’s “extensive experience and expertise in managing studio lots, ensure consistency across all of the studio operations and leasing opportunities for third parties, and permit Gray to retain its focus on its own video production business,” says the announcement.
Last summer, construction began on roadways and infrastructure throughout the Assembly Studios complex.
Construction on NBCUniversal’s facilities is expected to begin this summer. Gray Television anticipates that Assembly Studios will complete in the second half of 2023. When fully operational, more than 4,000 people could be employed at Assembly Studios and Third Rail Studios, says Gray Television.
