WEST PALM BEACH — Call it a COVID shot. Since the pandemic’s dark days of Summer 2020, the City of West Palm Beach has been a boomtown. Today, the clanging of construction cranes permeates an area of the city that 20 years was once home to Streamline Publishing, with gleaming new high-rises welcoming hotel guests and residents alike as the Brightline high-speed train whizzes passengers to Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.
This has made land values particularly valuable in the downtown core. That could be one explanation as to why The E.W. Scripps Co. decided two years ago to leave the 24-year home for the market’s NBC affiliate, WPTV-5.
What’s now making news is that the station is leaving the city for a nearby municipality.
There’s also another reason — massive growth in North Palm Beach County cities including Jupiter, and continued migration to the Treasure Coast, comprised of Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie Counties.
With new facilities in the City of Palm Beach Gardens in the works, WPTV is eyeing a fall 2027 relocation, making its news team more central to the entire DMA when covering stories across its newscasts.
In a statement provided to The Palm Beach Post, WPTV GM Bill Siegel said its longtime home at the corner of Australian Avenue and Banyan Blvd. — steps away from the former Ion Networks headquarters prior to its purchase by Scripps — is being sold. Indeed, signage facing Australian Avenue seen in early June by RBR+TVBR hinted that a move was in the works.
What was not known was that WPTV is leaving city limits and will be a neighbor to Hearst Television‘s market-leading ABC affiliate, WPBF-25, on RCA Boulevard — easily accessible by PGA Boulevard via U.S. 1, ALT A1A, Florida’s Turnpike and I-95.
“We expect to move in during the fall of 2027,” Siegel said.
A third reason was spelled out in his statement to The Palm Beach Post. “This new location is going to allow us to build out a more modern space that is the right size for us and has the features we need for the future,” he said.
An interior demolition permit has been obtained by Scripps to build out the new facility at 3980 RCA Blvd., in the Northcorp Corporate Park. The Palm Beach Post says an interior buildout permit with a valuation of $4 million was approved last month and that an exterior modification approval application is under City of Palm Beach Gardens review.
As previously reported, Scripps earned $40 million from the May 2025 sale of WPTV’s home at 1100 Banyan Blvd., and is in a lease-back agreement through its upcoming move date.
WPTV moved into its current home in 2001 after previously using a facility on Flagler Drive.
