Amazon Signs Massive Office Leases in Southern California

The company plans to hire more than 1,000 people to work in Santa Monica, and has signed a 200,000-square-foot lease at J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s Water Garden that starts in mid-2023. The office at 1620 26th Street is next to the Hulu, Roku and HBO offices at the adjacent Colorado Center in one of the top-performing office submarkets in Los Angeles County.

The average asking rent for Class A office space in Santa Monica was $6.32 per square foot per month in the first quarter, much higher than the $4.09 county average, according to Newmark (NMRK)’s latest office report. That rate would put Amazon’s lease at nearly $15.2 million per year.

Plans also include adding more than 800 jobs over the next few years in Irvine in Orange County. Amazon signed a lease for 116,000 square feet at Irvine Company’s Spectrum Terrace and plans to move in later this year.

Finally, in San Diego, Amazon signed a 123,000-square-foot lease with Seritage Growth Properties and Invesco at University Town Center to accommodate another 700 new employees. About 1,000 tech and corporate employees currently work at Amazon’s San Diego Tech Hub. The new office space is supposed to open in early 2023.

Amazon’s biggest impact in Southern California typically involves its massive warehouses and distribution footprint, and the company said last year it opened more than 15 sites across Southern California and created more than 17,000 jobs in the state. But the new office-based jobs announced Tuesday will support various teams, including retail, Amazon Games, Amazon Web Services and other operations.

“These 2,500 new jobs include roles building cloud infrastructure, improving the Alexa experience and designing cutting-edge video games,” Holly Sullivan, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide economic development, said in a statement. 

Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.