BY BILL PARRY
Just over a year after Amazon scuttled its plans to build a massive HQ2 campus in Long Island City, and create 25,000 jobs, the e-commerce giant has signed a new lease for space in Middle Village.
Amazon is taking roughly 300,000 square feet of space in Rentar Plaza, located at 66-26 Metropolitan Ave., according to the loan database TreppWire.
“I am thrilled to hear that Amazon has signed a lease at Rentar Plaza, which is in desperate need of revitalization,” Councilman Robert Holden said. “I actually suggested this location to Amazon two years ago. My hope is that this brings hundreds more jobs and renewed commercial activity to the area, which will be extremely valuable to our community for years to come.”
The Real Deal reports that Amazon will be taking over the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 109,000-square-foot space, plus the remaining 190,000 square feet of vacant space on the property.
QNS reached out to Amazon and is awaiting its response. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s lease was set to expire in July, and the Amazon lease brings Rentar Plaza to full occupancy, the Real Deal reports.
The city of New York is the property’s largest tenant with more than 500,000 square feet of space occupied by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
Amazon is also in talks for a giant distribution center in Maspeth at the old Cascades Containerboard factory on Grand Avenue. That property was recently acquired by a California-based company called LBA Realty for $72 million and the deal involves a partnership with RXR to build a four-story warehouse that would be ideal for the “last mile” of logistics for the e-commerce company.
Additionally, Amazon signed a lease in December for 335,000 square feet on Manhattan’s Far West Side, enough space for 1,500 employees and the corporation is also considering buying the Lord & Taylor building from WeWork for nearly $1 billion.
This story first appeared on qns.com.
