Amazon Moving Into Macy's Flagship Store in Seattle
Ironically, it was announced this week that e-commerce giant, Amazon.com, will be taking over the top six floors of the Macy's building in downtown Seattle. The Seattle Times reports the lease, confirmed by an Amazon spokesman, is the latest sign of expansion in the company’s hometown. News of the lease and further expansion comes a few weeks after Amazon confirmed it would take the entire office-space portion of the planned Rainier Square downtown skyscraper in Seattle, a massive 722,000-square-foot lease.
Total Retail's Take: This is a hard sign of the times. Amazon, which is helping to disrupt traditional brick-and-mortar retail, is now moving into an iconic department store's building. However, choosing Macy's for more office space isn't a surprising move by Amazon. Amazon now occupies more than 8 million square feet in Seattle, up from 4 million square feet just two-and-a-half years ago. No other company in any major U.S. city has that much space. In addition, the e-commerce Goliath is making moves for a second headquarters in a city yet to be determined. Over 100 US cities have put in their application to be the site of Amazon HQ2. We'll see what Amazon decides, as the application deadline for city's bids is today.
