Oprah Winfrey is selling her famed Harpo Studios to a developer. She has agreed to sell the home of The Oprah Winfrey Show from 1990 to 2011 for around $32 million. But the studio is expected to remain on the property for another two years and will continue producing programming for the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Around 200 people work at the 3.5-acre campus, which boasts over 170,000 square feet of space and was credited with transforming the once gritty industrial neighbourhood to a place full of families, bars and trendy restaurants.
“We have entered into a purchasing agreement with Sterling Bay for the four-building Harpo Studios campus in Chicago’s West Loop. We expect the transaction to be closed in 30 days. The property will be leased back to Harpo for two years and the studio will continue to produce programming for OWN,” a spokeswoman for the studio told Crain’s in a statement.
According to Contact Music, the studio played a major role in transforming the industrial neighborhood into an upscale part of town. In 2011, Richard Daley, then mayor of Chicago, named the street outside Harpo studio “Oprah Winfrey Way.”
