Amazon's lease of a full city block in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood, next to its headquarters, "puts the firm on track to eventually occupy about 10 million square feet in downtown Seattle--or one-fourth of the market's inventory of premium office space," the Seattle Times reported. On Tuesday, the company confirmed it will move into 817,000 square feet at Troy Block, a two-building complex.
"We've agreed to lease the Troy Block and we're really excited to continue growing our urban campus in the heart of Seattle," John Schoettler, Amazon director of global real estate and facilities.
Amazon's "rapid growth has put pressure on rents for offices and apartments in the area, even as it's ignited an unprecedented boom in apartment construction," the Seattle Times wrote.
"Every Seattle office tenant who has negotiated a lease in the last couple of years has felt the 'Amazon Effect,' " said tenant broker Brian Hayden of Flinn Ferguson. "The rate at which Amazon has been absorbing space has had a significant effect on Seattle's overall vacancy rate, which increases landlord confidence and puts upward pressure on rents."
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In other Amazon news, the company's Prime Now one-hour delivery service is expanding to select Dallas-area zip codes and will add more zip codes in the city and surrounding areas soon. The online retailer also offers the service in Baltimore, Miami and New York City, where Prime customers can receive deliveries from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. Two-hour delivery is free, and delivery within an hour in specified ZIP codes costs $7.99.
"Our existing operations in Dallas-area that utilize advanced technology to fulfill customer orders are now home to a Prime Now hub that is fueling this super-fast delivery," said Dave Clark, Amazon's senior v-p of worldwide operations.
