Time Warner reviews office space in Manhattan

[Published Oct 2011 and updated July 2023] Time Warner is considering its office space options in Manhattan and could soon be switching its headquarters from the Columbus Circle site built specifically for its staff less than a decade ago.

Top bosses at the company, which is among the largest media businesses in the world, have cited office space efficiency as an important financial performance issue and said a review of potential new locations is underway.

Any move by the business would be a huge and significant undertaking in the context of the overall market for offices in New York, given that it currently occupies roughly four million square feet of commercial space.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that’s office space sites at a new tower on the West Side of Manhattan and at the World Trade Center are both being considered by the company.

A memo, written by Time Warner chief executive Jeff Bewkes and its finance chief John Martin, and seen by the WSJ, said: “We are about to undertake an evaluation of our office footprint in the New York metropolitan area and develop a long-range plan to meet our future needs.”

Time Warner has around 6,000 employees in New York and there is uncertainty as to whether the best option for the business would be to have them accommodated at a single location, and whether there is office space enough in a single building to make the prospect viable.

As well as its main office headquarters in New York, the company currently has staff working out of 15 different areas of office space across the city, all of which amounts to roughly a fifth of its global real estate holding.

Time Warner owns HBO, CNN and Warner Bros.

Earlier this year Boston Properties announced that it had secured a deal for the law firm Morrison & Foerster to take up residence at the office tower it is developing at 250 West 55^th Street in Manhattan. The project was put on hold after the financial crisis but construction is set to get back under way this autumn.

Editor’s notes: Time Warner was renamed WarnerMedia after it was acquired by AT&T in 2018. The company had been established as Time Warner in 1990, following the merger between Time Inc. and Warner Communications.

In 2019, WarnerMedia agreed to rent 1.5 million square feet of office space over 27 floors at 30 Hudson Yards –  the development area on the west side of midtown Manhattan.

The move brought together brands HBO, CNN, TNT, TBS, and Warner Bros., plus 10,000 employees, from seven locations across the city.