Amazon Gobbling Up SoCal Office Space, Taking 439K SF In Santa Monica, Irvine, San Diego
Amazon may have too much warehouse space and too many warehouse workers, but they are apparently still short on the white-collar side.
The e-commerce giant announced plans Tuesday to add more than 2,500 corporate and tech jobs in three Southern California cities, snapping up nearly 450K SF of office space in LA, Orange and San Diego counties to make room for its new staff. The commitments would “[contribute] to local job creation and the revitalization of downtown areas,” Amazon said.
In Santa Monica, Amazon is planning to add more than 1,000 jobs “in the coming years” and has inked a 200K SF lease at the Water Garden in the beach city to support that growth. The Water Garden is owned by J.P. Morgan Asset Management and managed by CBRE. The first employees are expected on-site in mid-2023, according to Amazon.
Further south, in San Diego, Amazon signed on for 123K SF at Seritage Growth Properties and Invesco’s The Collection at UTC in La Jolla. It’s the largest lease signed by Seritage to date. Amazon will occupy the entire top two floors of the property. The company expects to add 700 employees in San Diego, on top of the 1,000 employees it already has at its San Diego Tech Hub.
Amazon also plans to move into 116K SF at The Irvine Co.’s Spectrum Terrace later this year and add more than 800 new jobs in the city. The Irvine lease was reported earlier this year, but at that time, it was still unclear what the space would be used for. Amazon is taking over square footage that was previously intended for WeWork.
