SECAUCUS, N.J. (AP) -Think of it as a diamond in the rough.
Major League Baseball unveiled a studio Wednesday at its television network headquarters, situated not in the glamorous media capital of New York City, but just a few miles west, amid the sprawling office parks of northern New Jersey.
The studios are expected to bring 200 new jobs to the state, employing workers who will earn, on average, $115,000 annually.
“These are not retail clerks,” said Emanuel Stern, whose company, Hartz Mountain Industries, owns the building. “These are well paid, white collar, professional jobs.”
Tucked off the New Jersey Turnpike, the studio introduced Wednesday is a small-scale replica of a baseball field covered in artificial grass and complete with bleachers, a scoreboard and empty Gatorade coolers in the dugouts.
Plaza.”
The channel, which launched Jan. 1 in 50 million homes, shows baseball games, commentary and other shows 24 hours a day. More than a dozen baseball and state officials attended the unveiling, including Gov. Jon Corzine.
It moved into the complex last spring, signing a 15-year lease and spending $50 million on renovations. The building was most recently occupied by the cable news channel MSNBC – which did make the move to Manhattan.
One reason the league signed a long lease is because it’s getting a host of state tax incentives.
Over the next decade, the league will receive nearly $8 million in rebates under the state’s Business Employment Incentive Program, said Caren Franzini, CEO of the state Economic Development Authority, which oversees the program.
The tax credits, which MSNBC also received, are doled out under several criteria, including a commitment to stay a certain period of time, the average salary of the firm’s workers and the region of New Jersey it’s based in.
Under the league’s agreement, it must stay for 15 years.
Stern, the building’s owner, said in an interview that the league was interested in the building even before he told them about the incentive program.
Prior to that, he said, there were “multiple proposals” being discussed for the lease’s length.
“It was a Chinese menu at one point,” he said.
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