FOX 13 officially moves into brand new facility in downtown Seattle

9-14 now on Good Day Seattle. After months of construction and years of planning, FOX 13 has officially moved into our new home in the heart of downtown Seattle. That's right. Our brand new facility on 9th Avenue is designed to change the way we gather and deliver news with more technology, more flexibility, and a bigger focus on streaming. Joining us in our brand new studio is Catherine Sampson with Lake Washington Partners and FOX 13 News Director Jake Wiederich. Good morning, guys. Thanks for Thanks for joining us. Hi, everyone. Hi. Let's talk about our new home, Jake. Thanks for having me. Well, let's talk. I mean, look, as Bill and you say, it's been years in the making, and it's really something that's been a huge investment from Fox, and I think we have a couple of views so that the viewers can kind of see a little bit more of our digs. This six box here is showing all the different places where we can deliver news to you. There's Fox 13's Brian McMillan right there in the newsroom. That's right. In the lower left. You know, we have performance areas to deliver news, weather, and sports in the newsroom. You can see the Fox 13 kitchen in the lower center of the of the box there. That is our staff's break room. It is also the place where we will do food and beverage segments right here on Good Day Seattle. Our Fox 13 lobby where our guests come in every day is also a place where we can deliver the news. And so it's just it's been a really fun project to build out and see it come from zero to 60 in a short amount of time. It really is incredible. And I will admit I drove to the wrong building this morning. I've been doing it for 25 years. I went to the wrong Wait, I'm not going here. But I will say that this is a wonderful location. So talk a little bit about where we are and what this building offers. Yeah, you know, we are thrilled to welcome Fox to the building. We couldn't be happier you're here. Axis 9 is located really in the center of everything. We have easy access to downtown, South Lake Union, Capitol Hill, and all the downtown amenities that go along with it. And speaking of the downtown outside amenities, the inside in the building are something that I think we all are super excited about. Talk about that. We are so proud of the amenity offerings. We've put a lot of investment into really creating a unique amount of space that supports the workday. It includes things like meeting spaces and conference rooms, but we also have some really unique spaces like a podcast studio that workers can create content. We also have some red light therapy in our new fitness center. Which is really nice. There's even a pickleball court down there, which is wonderful. Look at this. We have our Fox 13 pickleball rackets. Oh, look at that. We've got folks playing down there now. And what's great about the amenities that Catherine's describing is that it makes for happy journalists, right? Right? The big goal with this facility and building it all out with the technology that it has to deliver news is that we can deliver news and information to the audience. And so when you have a staff who enjoys working here and doing this, it really motivates everyone. And it's been fun. I've loved listening to the Megapole comments this morning about what's the worst part of moving. And yes, there are worse parts of moving. But we've also had a lot of best parts of moving. And one of the best parts of this particular facility is that we can deliver news 24-7 and we will be with a big focus on streaming. It's been very cool. You know, you're looking at Fox 13's Matthew Smith here rehearsing in our Studio B, our streaming news headquarters. And what's interesting is that the studio we're in here with Good Day Seattle and Seattle News Tonight, this is a well-developed, well-designed studio. That streaming studio, we went through about eight or nine different versions before we finally got it. to the place where we like it. And it's designed to be able to bring breaking news, good interviews to the audience any time of day, even if we're not doing a planned regular newscast. So Matt Smith and Felicia Michelle and the streaming team really have these excellent tools at their disposal to make that happen. And Catherine, tell us a little bit about what it's like to have people in the building here on this floor to see us all giddy and excited. It's fantastic. I mean, seeing how the team really came together with our ownership group to overcome some very real You know, infrastructure and operational challenges. I mean, a broadcast studio is a little different than your typical office tenant. We're a bit much. Not much, yeah. But we're thrilled that, you know, our offerings can really support folks throughout their very long work days. And as we were working with Catherine and her team to develop the space and get in here, you know, one of the things we talked about moving and the best and worst parts of moving, you know, we wanted to welcome our employees to To the building right and and and so all of the Fox 13 employees are receiving you know welcome backpacks with Water bottles, coffee tumblers, notebooks, and look, I will say... I thought that was a funny ad, Jake. It's a funny ad. We're in Seattle. It's a funny ad. We're in Seattle. Yes, we gave everyone an umbrella. I recognize that it was a controversial move. Be brave and buy this one. But the umbrella we felt, if people are going to be walking around downtown, there may be a few people who want to pop that bad boy open. Or just toss this on. Or just toss on the beanie that Aaron's got. It is great to be in our new home here in downtown. Catherine Sampson, thank you so much for joining us with Lake Washington Partners and Jake Weiderich, our news director. We just have one question. Can you change it to Access 13? Oh, great question. Doesn't that have a nice ring to it? We'll think about it. Okay. All right. More to come here on Good Day Seattle right after this.