Amazon is reportedly in talks with WeWork to lease the former Lord & Taylor building on Fifth Ave.
NEW YORK CITY—The Amazon hunt in New York City is still on, according to several news reports. Crain's recently reported the mega e-commerce company may have done an about-face on its Long Island City plans for an HQ2 but is back in Queens trying to acquire a distribution facility.
The business news publication wrote several sources say Amazon is looking at RXR Realty and LBA Realty's 55-15 Grand Ave. in Maspeth. Amazon would demolish the former warehouse that's onsite and build a new distribution facility, according to the article. The companies have not confirmed this deal.
This potential development follows last week's Wall Street Journal article reporting WeWork was in talks with Amazon to lease the former Lord & Taylor store at 424 Fifth Ave. In February, WeWork closed on the New York City flagship store in an $850 million transaction. The WSJ stated Amazon is considering leasing the entire building. The paper also noted that the flexible space giant was scouting out multiple locations for hundreds of thousands of square feet. This included looking at the Farley Post Office, which is being converted into the Moynihan Train Hall.
Back in early February at Anchin's Fifth Annual Development & Construction Forum before Amazon had pulled out of Long Island City, at a fireside chat, the founder of the Witkoff Group, Steve Witkoff, had predicted that Amazon needs New York City more than New York City needs Amazon.
The WSJ pointed out New York City's Silicon Alley is bustling with big tech like Google, Facebook and Uber Technologies looking to expand.
The publication estimated that the Lord & Taylor building could house over 4,000 employees. It also noted a source said WeWork was trying to get the lease done prior to its planned IPO scheduled for September.
WeWork and Amazon declined to comment to GlobeSt.com about any plans for leasing the Lord & Taylor building. However, Amazon told GlobeSt.com it has invested $4 billion in New York from 2010 to 2018. This includes customer fulfillment, cloud infrastructure, research facilities and employee compensation. The e-commerce and tech company also asserted that it has added over $2.7 billion to the state GDP through Amazon investments and has created 7,000 full-time jobs in the state and is continuing to hire.
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Betsy Kim
Betsy Kim was the bureau chief, East Coast, and New York City reporter for Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. As a lawyer and journalist, Betsy has worked as the director of editorial and content for LexisNexis Lawyers.com, a TV/multi-media journalist for NBC and CBS affiliated TV stations in the Midwest, and an associate producer at Court TV.
