Amazon.com moving; neighborhood bracing for change
By Deeann Glamser
SEATTLE, May 5 (Reuters) - Although Amazon.com Inc. boasts
no single structure is large enough to hold its book, music and
video inventory, the Internet's largest retailer has found a
landmark building in which to consolidate its corporate
offices.
This month the first wave of 300 Amazon employees will move
into a landmark former public-service hospital perched atop a
hill a mile southeast of downtown.
Amazon.com is one of a growing number of technology
companies that have planted themselves firmly in central
Seattle, in contrast to a previous generation led by Microsoft
Corp. that made the well-manicured suburbs of Bellevue and
Redmond the hub of the city's high-tech economy.
Internet software company RealNetworks Inc. is renovating
the former International Trade Center Building in the trendy
Belltown neighborhood, while biotechnology behemoth Immunex
Corp. is establishing a 29-acre campus on the Puget Sound
waterfront just north of downtown.
But Amazon.com's move carries perhaps the greatest
potential for culture clash as the 4-year-old company's young,
tech-savvy, stock-rich employees sweep into a largely immigrant
neighborhood of modest homes and mom-and-pop shops.
The change may be a shock for both sides. The hill has no
pizza joints or fast-food outlets and only one espresso shop --
a virtual coffee wasteland for java-crazy Seattle.
"Nobody knows what it's going to be like, but we're hoping
it's a good economic boost for the area," said Reba Bilssell,
who moved to the neighborhood 10 years ago because rents are
lower than in most parts of Seattle. "It's going to be a whole
different group of people."
Amazon.com will occupy the 12 floors left vacant when the
Pacific Medical Center hospital closed in 1987 after years of
financial struggles. PacMed's community clinic and offices will
remain on the lower two floors, served by a separate entrance.
Amazon spokesman Bill Curry said the company did not want
to move far because many employees live near its several
offices in downtown Seattle.
"This allows us to grow, and rapid growth is part of our
aggressive plan to seize opportunities in the early years of
the Internet," Curry said.
Amazon.com is aggressively expanding its site with
auctions, gifts, toys and free electronic greeting cards, and
has invested in other online companies, including Drugstore.com
and Pets.com.
Amazon.com's Seattle warehouse is about two miles south of
downtown, and it also has warehouses in Nevada, Delaware and
soon in Kansas.
By late June, 800 employees, including site developers and
corporate executives, will be housed in the new headquarters, a
1930s art-deco, tan and reddish brick building visible for
miles along Interstate 5.
Amazon's presence could swell to 2,000 in two years if a
proposed adjacent office tower and parking garage are built.
That proposed project, by Seattle development company
Wright Runstad, is in the final planning stages. Wright Runstad
has a 99-year lease from the local public agency that owns the
building, and is finishing a $25 million renovation for
Amazon.com.
Pacific Medical Center, which runs a network of 13
community clinics, will receive $1.1 million in annual net rent
on the main building for the first decade, then $1.5 million a
year.
Beacon Hill, with 35,000 residents, is one of Seattle's
most ethnically diverse neighborhoods. A small business
district near Amazon's new offices is lined with shop signs in
Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino and Spanish. The largest
immigrant groups are Chinese and Central American.
At a Texaco station, clerk Roy Wright says construction
workers renovating the building already have boosted his deli
business.
"I think it (Amazon) will help us, but people talk about it
with mixed emotions," Wright said. "A lot say that more
businesses will come in, but others would like the community to
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