SALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has
purchased the vacant KJZZ studio building west of the Salt Lake City
International Airport.
The purchase price was not disclosed.
"The
building is being considered for church operations, possibly as an
audio/visual studio or warehouse," said LDS Church spokesman Scott
Trotter.
The 67,000-square-foot
building sits on 8.4 acres north of I-80 and just west of the south end
of the Salt Lake City International Airport.
Greg
Miller, chief executive officer of the Larry H. Miller Group, which
also owns KJZZ and the Utah Jazz, described the sale as "a win-win
deal."
KJZZ had consolidated its
broadcast operations to the EnergySolutions Arena and had moved out of
its former studios in phases during recent months.
"The building was sitting dark and vacant," Miller said. "As a family, we wanted to do all we can to preserve that facility."
That meant the family wanted the building's studios and broadcast accent to remain intact.
Miller
said a possible sale was considered to other suitors prior to the Mormon church's involvement. However, other potential buyers either were not
willing to preserve the building's broadcast heritage or not able to
come up with the funding.
"So we talked to the church," he said.
Miller
said the purchase price is confidential. However, the Commerce Real
Estate Solutions Web site had advertised the original purchase price of
the KJZZ property at $6.6 million.
The
KJZZ studio was built about 25 years ago by the Skaggs Family. Miller
stressed that despite its age, the building remains a high-quality
facility for broadcasting.
The Millers purchased the building in 1992, when it owned KXIV, the forerunner to KJZZ."As a family, we're pleased that this facility was able to remain intact," Miller said. "That's the heart of the issue."
Besides
the LDS Church keeping the studios intact as part of the sale, Miller
said another provision is that KJZZ has an option to come back and use
the studios as needed. That isn't expected to happen very often, he
said, perhaps only once a year.
Miller said the sale of the studio does not signal a scaling back of KJZZ's broadcast/production.
"We're like a lot of businesses. We're looking for every opportunity to economize," he said.
Miller also said any transitions by KJZZ will be indiscernible to TV viewers.
The currently vacant KJZZ building has quick freeway access but is located about eight miles from downtown Salt Lake City.
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com