As the country awaits Amazon's HQ2 decision, the tech giant's latest move in New York City, though not quite worth $5B, is no small deal.
:no_upscale():quality(75))
Amazon has agreed to lease 360K SF at Five Manhattan West, one of the three office properties in Brookfield's Manhattan West complex near Hudson Yards, another leasing coup for the Canadian equity giant in 2017.
Amazon will take the entire sixth and seventh floors, and portions of the eighth and 10th floors, at the 1.8M SF repositioned office building, which is now 99% leased.
The e-commerce giant will move 2,000 employees to the space, it announced Thursday morning, including the New York office of its Amazon Advertising, Amazon Fashion and Amazon Web Services divisions, with plans to hire salespeople, software engineers, marketing professionals, data scientists and economists.
Amazon has had a busy September; its latest deal follows its announcement of a major distribution center on Staten Island, its first in the five boroughs. And, of course, there was the news that it is seeking bids for a new $5B HQ through Oct. 19. While many believe New York is too expensive to be a realistic option, Brooklyn leaders and landlords are gearing up to lure it to the city.
The new Manhattan office is expected to open next year, and by 2019, Amazon plans to employ 6,000 people throughout the city in its photo studio in the fashion district, new offices, bookstores and fulfillment centers.
Amazon will join JPMorgan Chase, which occupies 458K SF in the building at 450 West 33rd St., and Whole Foods on the ground floor. Amazon was rumored to be in talks for the building back in April, and the deal has now come to fruition.
A Cushman & Wakefield team of Bruce Mosler, Josh Kuriloff, Rob Lowe, Ethan Silverstein and Matthias Li represented Brookfield, while JLL's Derek Trulson, Josh Stuart, Bill Peters and Clay Nielsen worked on behalf of Amazon. Amazon's lease at Manhattan West follows JPMorgan's and major deals for Accenture, for 250K SF, at McKool Smith, for 64K SF, at One Manhattan West, the under-construction new office tower at the complex.
