It’s prime real estate?
Sources claim that online-retail juggernaut Amazon is considering an expansion into Sunset Park’s Industry City — even though a spokeswoman for the tech giant denied that the company had plans to move to Brooklyn.
Crain’s reported on Wednesday that the $1 trillion multinational retailer is on the hunt for a new logistics facility, where it would store and ship items to customers. A source told Crain’s that while it’s unclear how much space Amazon is looking to lease, the tech company could rent as much as 1 million square feet in the 16-building facility. Another source told Bloomberg that the discussions are still in their early stages.
However, a spokeswoman for Amazon responding to a Brooklyn Paper request for comment said the company has no plans to open any additional Brooklyn facilities.
A rep for Industry City played coy regarding any potential negotiations with the blockbuster tenant.
“While it’s clear that a number of companies are looking to satisfy their ‘last mile’ needs in Brooklyn, we decline to comment on any specific negotiations that might be underway,” said Industry City spokeswoman Lisa Serbaniewicz, using a transportation term that refers to the last leg of a supply chain.
The Crain’s report comes five months after Amazon pulled out of its plans to develop a massive Queens facility to serve as headquarters to Jeff Bezos’ retail empire, and almost two years after Industry City’s owners tried — and failed — to lure the tech giant to the Sunset Park complex. In 2017, Industry City executive Andrew Kimball promised 5 million of the 7.5 million square feet campus to Amazon, hoping to court the well-heeled multinational and the 50,000 jobs it would bring, Gothamist reported.
Amazon has been rapidly expanding its logistical capabilities in New York City over the last few years, opening a facility in Staten Island in 2018 that takes up nearly a million square feet, and leasing a 100,000-foot space in the Bronx earlier this year, Crain’s reported.
“A real estate source familiar with Amazon’s thinking said the company anticipates needing millions of additional square feet as it continues to grow in the city,” the Crain’s article claimed.
Amazon already has a presence in Brooklyn — and right next to Industry City. In 2015, the tech company signed a seven-year lease at Sunset Park’s Liberty View Industrial Plaza, Brownstoner reported.
