Time to say goodbye : Oprah Winfrey 's Harpo Studios will close its doors in Chicago in December after 26 years , and all of the operations will be moved to the Oprah Winfrey Network 's new headquarters in West Hollywood . Oprah Winfrey is getting ready to leave Windy City for good in favor of Tinsel Town . By the end of this year , Winfrey 's Harpo Studios will close its doors in Chicago after 26 years , and all of the operations will be moved to the Oprah Winfrey Network 's new headquarters in West Hollywood , it was announced today . The 61-year-old media mogul , ranked 603 on Forbes ' 2015 list of billionaires , personally delivered the news to her staff in Chicago Tuesday morning . The Oprah Winfrey Network ( OWN ) was founded by the former 'queen of daytime ' in 2011 in Los Angeles , and Winfrey 's executives have spent the past four years traveling back and forth between Chicago and Hollywood . Two months ago , OWN moved into a new three-story space called The Lot in West Hollywood , setting the stage for the shutdown of Harpo Studios in Chicago . ' [ Chicago has ] been everything for me . I 've spent more hours in this building than I have any other building on Earth , ' Miss Winfrey told The Hollywood Reporter by phone . 'We were here when there was nothing but hoes and rats on the street , and now it 's one of the hottest neighborhoods . ' The Academy Award-nominated actress and film producer acknowledged that it would be sad for her to bid farewell to her old home base , but she felt it was the right time to consolidate her network ’ s operations under one roof . End of an era : After 26 years in Chicago 's West Loop , Winfrey 's production company will move out of the four-building campus . New home : Two months ago , the four-year-old Oprah Winfrey Network moved into a new three-story space called The Lot in West Hollywood . Harpo will stop shooting shows for OWN as of Tuesday , and the studio will officially shutter its doors in December . Miss Winfrey said in a statement Tuesday that Harpo Studios has been a 'blessing ' in her life and she 's now 'looking ahead ' to inhabiting her California studio . Since 2011 , the Chicago-based studio , which employed about 200 people , had produced 800 hours of original programming . Only a small portion of the Harpo staff will join OWN 's 140 employees in LA . The move comes nearly a year after Winfrey sold the four-building Harpo Studios to the real estate development company Sterling Bay for estimated $ 32million . Under the agreement , the property was leased back to Harpo for two years . The lease expires in April 2016 , but the studio will close at the end of 2015 . Winfrey first came to Chicago in 1984 to be on the morning talk show AM Chicago . A month later , the show was No 1 in the market and was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show . Talk show queen : Winfrey first came to Chicago in 1984 to be on the morning talk show AM Chicago . A month later , the show was No 1 in the market and was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show . Lucrative deal : Winfrey sold the four-building Harpo Studios to a developer for $ 32million last year . Beginning of the end : In this May 24 , 2011 file photo , Kimberly Adams holds a poster outside Harpo Studios before the final taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show in Chicago . In 1990 , Winfrey moved into Harpo Studios in Chicago ’ s ' West Loop , helping transform the surrounding neighborhood from a bleak industrial park into a trendy , family-friendly community . Winfrey continued filming her popular daytime show at the 3.5-acre campus until 2011 when she left to start her own cable network . That year , then-Chicago Mayor Richard Daly renamed the street outside Harpo Studios Oprah Winfrey Way .
Winfrey 's four-building Harpo Studios will close its doors in West Loop 's Chicago in December after 26 years . Winfrey sold the 3.5-acre campus to a developer last year for $ 32million . Only a few of her 200 West Loop workers will be joining her 140-person LA staff .