Altanta's CNN Center For Sale

The landmark CNN Center building in downtown Atlanta may soon have a new owner, though CNN employees will remain there for at least a few more years.

Ajc.com reports, AT&T, which owns CNN as a result of its 2018 acquisition of Time Warner, has either already agreed to sell or plans to sell the CNN Center, according to an internal company memo sent on Monday.

WarnerMedia, the subsidiary of AT&T that operates CNN, will lease back the building from its new owners for at least five years. CNN employees won’t be affected immediately.

But long-range plans call for many if not most CNN employees to move from downtown to recently renovated buildings near Georgia Tech that already house TNT, Cartoon Network and other WarnerMedia networks.

WarnerMedia has a total of about 6,000 employees in Atlanta.The CNN Center has long been a downtown magnet. It was damaged in late May when protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minnesota turned violent. A large sign of CNN’s iconic red logo, located at one of the building’s main entrances, was also damaged during the demonstrations, though quickly repaired the next day.

CNN has occupied its namesake building since 1987, when Ted Turner moved the network there from its original home at the Techwood campus, where it was founded in 1980.

The decision to sell CNN Center was made years ago by Time Warner executives as a way to cut costs, although the plan was set in motion only after AT&T purchased Time Warner, Pascal Desroches, WarnerMedia's chief financial officer, said in Monday's memo.