ATLANTA – NBCUniversal Media (NBCU) has entered into a long-term agreement with Atlanta-based Gray Television to lease and operate new studio facilities at Gray’s Assembly Atlanta development in Doraville.
Construction will begin this summer at the former site of a General Motors plant, creating up to 1,200 construction jobs.
Gray expects the Assembly Studios complex to be completed in the second half of next year. When fully operational, the studios are expected to employ more than 4,000.
“Gray Television is thrilled to expand our already strong relationship with NBCU,” Hilton Howell Jr., Gray’s executive chairman and CEO, said Wednesday.
“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.”
Assembly Atlanta is a 135-acre mixed-use complex bordering Interstate 285 centered around the studio industry. The 43-acre Assembly Studios complex features soundstages, production offices, warehouse and mill buildings, studio bungalows, event space, and a parking deck.
NBCU’s lease with Gray will include a full suite of facilities needed to support television and film production.
“Georgia has hosted dozens of NBCU features and television projects over the past decade,” said Lee Thomas, director of the Georgia Film Office, a division of the state Department of Economic Development. “We look forward to their more permanent presence in Georgia’s growing film ecosystem, creating more jobs for Georgians and more opportunities for small businesses throughout the state.”
NBCU will manage all studio and production facilities within the Assembly Studios complex, including Gray’s own studio facilities and Gray’s Third Rail Studios.
Outside of the Assembly Studios complex, current plans for Assembly Atlanta include mixed-use and commercial buildings around a town center to be completed during the next five to seven years.
Longer-term development plans include a boutique hotel, townhouses and apartments, entertainment venues, a conference center and office buildings.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.