After a nine-month effort by city officials to find WTXF-TV a suitable headquarters in Philadelphia came up empty, managers at Channel 29 have decided to move to Bryn Mawr.

The station, now at 330 Market St., plans to lease a rebuilt former insurance company office at 40 Morris Ave., near the Bryn Mawr SEPTA station.

Channel 29's departure will mean the loss of 150 full-time and part-time jobs to Montgomery County, as well as whatever cachet or visibility a network station brings to a city. It also will remove a major tenant from East Market Street just as a costly reconstruction of the roadway and sidewalks from Independence Mall to Front Street is supposed to begin.

The departure must still be approved by the Fox network,...