Boston Properties and Al Jazeera have agreed to terminate the broadcast news network’s 85,000-square-foot lease at 250 West 55th Street in Midtown, with Al Jazeera paying $45 million to leave its space after announcing it would shut down its Al Jazeera America channel this spring.

In its year-end earnings release Wednesday, the Boston-based real estate investment trust said it had “entered into a lease termination agreement with a tenant” at the 38-story, 1 million-square-foot office tower.

While Boston Properties did not name the tenant in question, industry analysts confirmed it is the Qatari media giant, which announced plans to shut down the struggling Al Jazeera America at the end of April.

Al Jazeera agreed to take roughly 85,000 square feet at the Midtown office building in 2014, as The Real Deal reported, including around 50,000 square feet on the second floor – an expansive space with double-height ceilings ideal for a broadcast studio.

But Al Jazeera never moved into the space, and analysts estimate the network paid Boston Properties more than five years worth of rent to break the lease, which was scheduled to run through February 2035. The one-time lease termination payment is worth approximately $45 million, the REIT confirmed in its earnings release.

Al Jazeera’s space at 250 West 55th Street also included a ground-floor retail space with full frontage on Eighth Avenue, as well as a full-floor space on the building’s upper floors.

Source: Al Jazeera to pay M to terminate 250 West 55th lease