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Report: Amazon looking for 50,000 SF of Miami office space

Nancy Dahlberg
Nancy Dahlberg
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By Nancy Dahlberg

Amazon is seeking office space in Miami, reports Bloomberg. The news comes shortly after Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos announced his plans on Instagram to move from the Seattle area, his home for 30 years, to Miami.

According to the Bloomberg report citing unnamed sources, Amazon desires about 50,000 square feet of office space. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg that the e-commerce giant is looking for space and said it started the search before Bezos’s announcement that he was relocating to Florida.

This report follows news from a slew of financial and technology firms that have moved to the area or expanded existing footprints, led by Ken Griffin’s Citadel. Griffin relocated Citadel’s and Citadel Securities’ headquarters to Miami from Chicago last year and has purchased multiple properties in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Private equity firm Thoma Bravo and Nvidia also are expanding here, and in 2021 Microsoft announced plans to open a 50,000 square foot hub in Brickell. Miami-based Kaseya has announced massive expansion plans, too. The percentage of available office space is now below the pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to brokerage CBRE Group.

Amazon currently has over 400 corporate and tech employees in the Greater Miami region but, so far, the company has not signed any leases for additional space, the spokesperson told Bloomberg. However, this would also be the first base location, the spokesperson said.

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Over the past five years, Amazon has expanded its distribution business, but is reportedly pushing back its opening of a 1 million square foot distribution center in Homestead, citing macroeconomic issues that it says have affected its entire warehouse network. In 2018, Miami was one of 20 metro areas in the running for Amazon’s HQ2 but despite a collaborative South Florida-wide campaign led by the Miami-Dade Beacon Council and including the economic development agencies of Broward and Palm Beach counties, the Magic City did not make the final cut. Fast forward and earlier this year, Amazon unveiled phase one its $2.5 billion HQ in Arlington, Virgina, and has opened the first phase of its new hub in Nashville, as well as office space in Manhattan.

Bezos lived in the Miami area during high school and graduated from Miami Palmetto Senior High in 1982. He stepped down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021 to become Amazon’s executive chairman. Before announcing last month he was moving to Miami from Seattle, his home for 30 years, Bezos bought two homes in Indian Creek, a man-made barrier island in the larger Miami area known as the “Billionaire Bunker.” He paid $79 million for a seven-bedroom mansion after $68 million for a neighboring property.  

Bezos said he was moving because he loved Miami and wanted to be closer to his parents, who live here now, and to his company Blue Origin, about 200 miles north on the Space Coast. Last year, he reportedly helped his parents buy two homes next to each other in Coral Gables for a combined $78 million.

Last year, Bezos pledged to donate most of his wealth to charitable causes within his lifetime. As part of that, he established the Bezos Earth Fund, aimed at fighting climate change, with $10 billion in  grants targeted to be disbursed by 2030.

This story may be updated.

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