News Corp, 21st Century Fox Drop Plans for World Trade Center Move

By Eliot Brown 

Media companies 21st Century Fox and News Corp. have dropped plans to move to a glassy new skyscraper at the World Trade Center, choosing instead to stay in the companies' midtown Manhattan office tower.

The decision comes seven months after the companies announced a tentative plan to move to 2 World Trade Center, a jagged new tower that would be the final building to be completed on the 16-acre site. Rupert Murdoch is chairman of both 21st Century Fox and News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal.

In a statement to employees Friday, James Murdoch, 21st Century Fox's chief executive, and News Corp Chairman Lachlan Murdoch said the companies would stay in their existing headquarters at 1211 Sixth Avenue until at least 2025.

"We have concluded that a relocation project of this scope could be distracting in the near term and, given the scale of investment in a relocation of this size, that our resources would be better directed elsewhere," the two executives said.

While the companies had said they were considering staying in place, 2 World Trade Center was the leading contender as of the middle of last year. The plan was announced with fanfare, complete with a video by the tower's architect and renderings showing off amenities like an indoor basketball court.

The companies zoomed in on 2 World Trade Center and began negotiating a lease after a search process led by James Murdoch steered the companies to the new tower--one of few spaces in the city that could accommodate the companies in their entirety. They had planned about 1.5 million square feet.

Write to Eliot Brown at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 15, 2016 17:29 ET (22:29 GMT)

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