New England Sports Network Moving to Watertown

"This new facility will allow us to extend our HD programming to our highly popular pre- and post-game shows and NESN SportsDesk and allow us continue to develop new original programming for the region's sports fans," NESN president Sean McGrail says in the statement announcing the move.

The Watertown facility at 480 Arsenal St. will include two high-definition studios and upgraded control rooms along with a digital infrastructure for future technology enhancements and expansion of its HD programming. The building also will include four LCD screens in the production control room and a master control center that will be server-based rather than tape-based, allowing NESN to become the first regional sports network in the country to produce all studio programming in HD.

Joy Gustat, business development and marketing manager for Diversified Project Management of Newton, which is coordinating the move, tells GlobeSt.com that NESN will gain more than 27,000 sf with the relocation. The station, owned by Red Sox and the Bruins, currently operates out of 12,500 sf at 70 Brookline Ave. with a satellite studio at TD Banknorth Garden, its broadcast location for the Bruins' home games. NESN, which has been in the Fenway Park studio at least 20 years, will continue to maintain the Fenway Park and TD Banknorth Garden facilities.

The cost of the Watertown project, which has been in the planning stages for almost a year, is not being disclosed. The long-term lease was negotiated between building owner Alexandria Real Estate Equities of Pasadena, CA and NESN by David Fitzgerald in CB Richard Ellis Inc.'s Boston office. The building's interior redesign was done by architects Visnick & Caulfield of Boston, with construction by J. Calnan & Associates of Quincy. Diversified Project Management, an independent facilities management consulting company, coordinated the move, including the property search and infrastructure installation.