Discovery has announced it has signed a lease on a 60,000 sq. ft. space with Brookfield Properties’ Silver Spring Metro Plaza in Silver Spring to be the home for Discovery’s new Maryland Network Hub.
Located at 8403 Colesville Road, The Hub will house select network and support functions, as well as select other functions such as government relations, that are logically based in the Metropolitan DC area.
“Discovery was founded in Maryland and since 1991 has been part of the Montgomery County community, so the decision to move the global headquarters is one that was not made lightly,” said David Leavy, Chief Corporate Operations and Communications Officer.
“We are excited to be able to keep a presence in Silver Spring to continue to support and draw from the robust Maryland and DC-area production community that has developed alongside Discovery over the past 35 years.”
The company also announced today it has sold its Silver Spring building to Foulger-Pratt and Cerebus Capital Management following the company’s decision earlier this year to relocate its global headquarters to New York City in 2019.
Approximately 300 full-time employees will relocate to the new offices at Brookfield’s Silver Spring Metro Plaza from the company’s One Discovery Place headquarters just blocks away. The employees will serve in positions related to network and support functions and government relations in the offices at 8403 Colesville Road, according to the company.
Last year Discovery announced it would be leaving Silver Spring and has since moved its national headquarters to Knoxville, Tennessee, and is planning to move its global headquarters to New York City in 2019. The company employees about 1,300 people.
Discovery’s state-of-the-art media distribution facility will remain in Sterling, Virginia and become a global technology center as announced earlier this year. The Northern Virginia Technology Hub, which originates over 80 global feeds, features modern digital technology, recently upgraded to take full advantage of live playout capabilities, increased nonlinear publishing and, most recently, the company’s industry-leading efforts to move all Discovery US networks origination to the cloud.