It was a great day for an end-zone dance in Stamford: A bright tent, 500 people and billowing clouds to match billowing civic and corporate pride.
The touchdown came in the form of the glistening NBCUniversal”™s NBC Sports Group building in the remade former Clairol factory at the end of Blachley Road.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, with a spirited address said, “This was a competition we wanted to win and we won it.” The NBC studios were formerly in New York City. He noted the entire effort had taken just 11 months.
“Welcome to Stamford,” Malloy, a former 12-year Stamford mayor said. “Welcome to Connecticut. Welcome. Welcome.”
The applause, grilled food from a dozen gourmet stations and youthful enthusiasm, compliments of 40 college interns, harked to a tailgate event.
Lined up for some food, Chris Creed, managing editor of NBCOlympics.com, is already well engaged in the coming winter Olympics in Russia. He proved so by spelling the host town without hesitation: “S-o-c-h-i.”
The building contains an eye-popping 320,000-square-foot footprint through which 400 miles of optic cables have been snaked. A single newsroom is 320-by-460 feet ”” more than 3 acres. The headquarters will house some 500 NBC employees. There are more than 50 editing rooms on site.
The chairman of the NBC Sports Group, Mark Lazarus, thanked the builders, architects and government leaders, including Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia. Yet for all the suits and the backdrop of a $100 million-plus headquarters, his enthusiasm remained as boyish as his smile. “We are officially open for business,” he said.
The project fell under the state”™s First Five/Next Five initiative, which promises tax credits and other incentives to companies that vow to create more than 200 jobs, or in NBC”™s case, to bring them to Connecticut from elsewhere. Malloy said the initiative”™s success has fostered the next phase: the First 15 initiative.
The First 15 program was approved in October. The Small Business Express initiative ”” “Not as high profile, but it touches a lot more businesses ”” 800,” said Malloy spokesman Andrew Doba ”” targets small businesses with incentives and the Connecticut Innovation Ecosystems seeks to boost science and technical degrees in the state university system by 70 percent.
“The higher education initiatives mirror what the governor is doing in business ”” making sure Connecticut remains competitive,” Doba said.
Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia said he never expected “this building that was a hollow shell” to be transformed so quickly. “To go from hand drawings to state-of the-art communications and sports facility is unbelievable,” he said. Praising Lazarus by name, he said, “Mark may not have understood the city of Stamford five years ago, but he knows it better than anyone today. Your presence contributes to that value proposition that I call Stamford.”
Pavia, Malloy and Lazarus were joined at the podium by state Rep. Gerald Fox III and state Sen. Carlo Leone.
“This is a terrific project for the city and state, and one that I am proud to support as the fourth First Five,” Malloy said. The first three companies to take part in the First Five program are CIGNA, TicketNetwork and ESPN.
“The companies that are participating in this economic development program are job producers, and NBCUniversal has been doing that since it first arrived in Connecticut,” Malloy said. “Stamford has been home to NBCUniversal television production since 2008 when it retrofitted the Rich Forum Theatre in downtown to create the Stamford Media Center. As mayor of Stamford at the time, I was supportive of the city and state assistance for the project because I understood its potential. I am strongly supportive of this expansion in Stamford because we continue to see the positive impact in the local economy and on the workforce.”
The 32-acre site will house office space for NBC Sports, NBC Olympics, NBC Sports Digital, VERSUS (to be renamed the NBC Sports Network Jan. 2), and the Comcast Sports Management Group, which oversees the NBC Sports Group”™s 14 regional networks. The NBC Sports Group will also use the site for studios to feed the company”™s need for studio content.
