Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios In Chicago Shutting Down

Harpo Studios, Oprah Winfrey’s studios in Chicago, will be shutting down in December of this year.

Chicago’s Harpo Studios Shutting Down

Harpo Studios have called the property in Chicago’s West Loop home for decades, opening in 1990. Before the lease runs out in April 2016, Harpo Studios will have moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, reported the Chicago Tribune. Chicago-based real estate developer Sterling Bay Cos. has already picked up the four-building, 170,000 square feet of property for $30.5 million.

“We have been fortunate to have this spectacular city of Chicago as our home for over 25 years and are thankful to everybody who has been a part of this great company,” Erik Logan and Sheri Salata, presidents of OWN and Harpo Studios, said in a statement.

Harpo Studios will now join Winfrey’s OWN in California and will take up network facilities in West Hollywood. The move will force Harpo Studios to lay off a number of its 200 employees, who work on OWN shows Oprah’s Master Class, Oprah: Where Are They Now, Oprah Prime and Iyanla: Fix My Life, for which production will soon be headed up in California. Some of those employees have been offered positions in the California offices.

“Harpo Studios in Chicago was not just my home but also my life for nearly 30 years. I’ve spent more time there than anywhere else. I am so proud of what we created,” Winfrey said in a statement. “It has been a blessing in my life and I thank everyone who has been a part of this great run. I am now looking ahead to inhabiting the new space on The Lot in California and carrying on the legacy of Harpo Studios with OWN programming.”