Amazon.com Eyes West 34th Street for First Store Offline
By Danielle Schlanger October 9, 2014 5:17 pm
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Website behemoth Amazon (AMZN).com will open its first brick-and-mortar store, according to a Wall Street Journal article published Tuesday.
The enormous online empire and largest Internet-based company in the U.S. will have space at 7 West 34th Street, a property owned by Vornado Realty Trust. The 10-story commercial building includes 23,000 square feet of retail space and over 400,000 square feet of office space.
In a 2012 interview with Charlie Rose, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos floated the idea that the company may indeed open a physical location, but only if it could offer a unique model.
“We would love to [open a brick and mortar store], but only if we can have a truly differentiated idea,” Mr. Bezos said.
Mr. Bezos added: “The question we would always ask before we would embark on such a thing is: what’s the idea? What would we do that would be different? How would it be better?”
Yet Amazon has yet to confirm its plans for the site.
“We have made no announcements about a location in Manhattan,” said Amazon.com spokesperson Kelly Cheeseman in an email to Commercial Observer.
Vornado Realty Trust, the building’s owner, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Seattle-based Amazon currently occupies office space in Manhattan at 1350 Avenue of the Americas.
