Washington, D.C.; November 17, 2008… NPR, one of the premier worldwide media organizations, will allow the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) to immediately begin using the site of its future headquarters at 1111 North Capitol Street, N.E. in Washington, D.C.’s NoMa (North of Massachusetts Avenue) neighborhood rent-free for up to one year to help the food bank meet the community’s immediate and growing demands for food assistance.CAFB will use the existing building to store large bulk food items that cannot be housed in its current facility due to space constraints. CAFB itself is moving to a new building at 4900 Puerto Rico Avenue, N.E. in 2010. Temporary use of NPR’s North Capitol Street site will bridge the gap between the food bank’s current storage capacity and its growing needs until the new facility delivers.

The existing four-story building on 1111 Capitol Street was constructed in 1927 for the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company and has most recently served as a storage facility and workshop for the Smithsonian Institution. The food bank will occupy a portion of the first floor of the now-vacant 146,000 square foot building, using its seven loading docks to accommodate food shipments.

“The NoMa BID applauds NPR’s generous donation of its vacant storage space to the Capital Area Food Bank, at a time when local demand for food assistance has been exacerbated by the state of the economy,” said Elizabeth Price, President of the NoMa Business Improvement District (BID).

Meanwhile, NPR recently selected Hickok Cole Architects of Washington, DC, to design its new environmentally-sensitive headquarters building in NoMa. Plans for the new 360,000 square foot facility include a 60,000 square foot space for NPR News’ broadcast and multimedia operations and a public space for live shows and events. All of NPR’s Washington-based journalism, multimedia, technical distribution, business and executive activities will be housed in the new facility.

NPR purchased the NoMa site in July 2008 and last month announced the selection Boston Properties, Inc. (NYSE: BXP) to develop the property into the multimedia organization’s new global headquarters. Boston Properties also purchased NPR’s current headquarters at 635 Massachusetts Avenue, NW and leased back the property to NPR. NPR will remain at its current location until its new headquarters building in NoMa is ready for occupancy in 2012.

About NPR
Since its launch in 1970, NPR has evolved into a leading media company, award-winning news organization, and dominant force in American life. NPR produces and/or distributes more than 1300 hours of programming weekly, including more than 150 hours of news, information, talk, entertainment, and cultural shows for 860 NPR Member stations, with 26.5 million listeners weekly. NPR programs two 24/7 channels for Sirius satellite radio and five 24/7 music multicast channels for HD Radio; additionally, with more than 90 podcasts, NPR is the most successful podcaster among American media companies. Its 24/7 NPR Worldwide program stream reaches listeners in more than 100 countries. www.NPR.org offers extensive original audio, video, photography, and text content, as well as nearly 15 years of NPR programming archives. NPR Music, launched in November 2007 as a free music discovery destination, has concerts, interviews, blogs, reviews, artists index, and features spanning all music genres. NPR’s continuing expansion in digital media includes NPR Mobile, in partnership with Member stations nationwide, the NPR Open API, launched July 2008, and NPR Community, launched in September 2008.

NPR programs produced in Washington, D.C. are Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Talk of the Nation, Tell Me More, All Songs Considered, Weekend Edition Saturday and Weekend Edition Sunday. NPR.org, NPR Music and NPR Podcasts are also based in Washington.

About the NoMa BID
NoMa is an emerging mixed-use neighborhood north of the U.S. Capitol and Union Station in Washington, D.C. Private developers have invested over $1 billion in 2007-2008 alone, with plans to develop more than 20 million square feet of office, residential, hotel, and retail space in the 35-block area covered by the NoMa BID over the next 10 years. For more information about the BID, including an interactive development map, see the BID Web site at http://nomabid.wpengine.com.