Manhattan is Home to Yahoo! News Studio, Most Expensive Residential Rental

By Veronica Grecu, Associate Editor

Yahoo!, the pioneer of Internet search and content development, will have its own studio in Manhattan at the corner of 40^th Street and Sixth Avenue, where the company already has office space. The work has already begun on converting 5,000 square feet of what used to be conference room space into an HD studio with two sets, seven edit rooms, a state-of-the-art control room and a green room.

Quoted by the Hollywood Reporter, Michael Manas, head of production supervision at Yahoo! Studios New York, said that the new studio will enhance the company’s ability to grow and enhance while delivering quality. One of the two sets will broadcast financial news and the other one will be used for sports, entertainment, fashion and lifestyle news. Currently, the company occupies a nearby studio that is used for the Breakout Show. The lease expiration in March 2012 will coincide with the opening of the new studio, so Yahoo! will continue the filming for Breakout in the new location, along with Trending Now and Daily Ticker, as well as other shows that are yet to be announced, says the Hollywood Reporter.

In residential news, CNN Money reports that the Astor Suite at the Plaza Hotel is now the most expensive rental apartment ever to hit the residential market in Manhattan. After a multimillion-dollar, two-year renovation by designer Steven Gambrel, the luxury residence is available for rent for $165,000 a month—that’s more than an average American family earns in three years.

The Astor Suite is owned by Esprit Europe founder Jürgen Friedrich, who purchased the residence in 2007 for $30 million. The 5,087-square-foot apartment has three bedrooms and five baths and includes an 800-square-foot guest suite. Each room features high-end furnishings, English oak paneling and eighteenth-, nineteenth-and twentieth-century furniture and artifacts.