Amazon is planning to open its first NYC brick-and-mortar location with a bookstore and café in Related Cos and Oxford Properties’ Hudson Yards (left).
The store is expected to open in late 2018 or early 2019 with the rest of Hudson’s retail, and will mirror the structure of the Seattle location, showcasing Amazon’s own line of books, Kindle e-readers and Fire tablets, the New York Post reports.
“I don’t know if the final lease was signed yet, but I know the deal is happening,” one source told the Post. “There’s no way that deal is dying.”
Amazon has been slowly building up its Amazon Books empire, with announced expansions to Portland and San Diego and a student bookstore at Georgia Tech, but this would be the first major bookstore on the East Coast.
It could be the first of hundreds of new locations, however, as General Growth Properties CEO Sandeep Mathrani hinted at in an earnings call earlier this year.
Amazon has a good relationship with the Big Apple, recently completing a $30M contract to sell e-books to NYC schools, taking control of the US’s largest school district. The contract includes a $34.5M option to extend for two more years. [NYP]
