Amazon pauses construction of 6 US office buildings

Amazon is halting the construction of six office buildings in Bellevue, Washington, and Nashville, Tennessee, to reassess the designs to accommodate hybrid work. According to a corporate official, the construction halt and delay won’t have an impact on Amazon’s employment ambitions. The company has proposed to add 5,000 positions to Nashville and 25,000 to Bellevue.

“The [coronavirus] pandemic has significantly changed the way people work … Our offices are long-term investments and we want to make sure that we design them in a way that meets our employees’ needs in the future,” said John Schoettler, vice president of global real estate and facilities at Amazon.

Separately, Bloomberg News reported on Friday that Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Amazon have pulled back on their office expansion plans in New York City.

Meta has decided not to take an additional 300,000 square feet of space at 770 Broadway, a building near Astor Place where it is already located, and Amazon has cut down the amount of space it intended to lease from JP Morgan at Hudson Yards, the report said.

“There are often a number of reasons why we wouldn’t proceed with a particular deal, including office utilisation. The past few years have brought new possibilities around the ways we connect and work,” a Meta representative told Reuters without confirming or denying the report.

“We remain firmly committed to New York and look forward to opening the Farley in the coming months,” the representative said.