HJ,
They are nuts to stay downtown. And what is this with immunex getting waterfront property?! I know someone in Sequim who says msft bot 1100 acres there. Now that is some good but cheap property. You know where Sequim is? Obviously the folks running msft are smarter than the immunex folks. Duh.
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Wednesday May 5, 9:39 pm Eastern Time
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 be left alone.''
The main concerns are increased traffic and more pressure on scarce parking spots in surrounding neighborhoods. On the upside, The Beacon Alliance of Neighbors, a community group, hopes the activity drives away prostitutes and drug dealers who have worked alleys and a park near Amazon's new location.
A wrought-iron fence and small lawn separate the campus from the neighborhood.
Beyond the art-deco bronze elevator doors in the lobby, the new headquarters will be ''very Amazonian,'' Curry said, referring to the bare-basics offices reflecting a company ethic that investment goes into Internet services and not physical surroundings.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos' original desk, fashioned out of a wooden door, set the no-frills tone -- and since was sold at a charity auction for $31,000 to his mother. But the tradition remains. ''The door desks will still be there,'' Curry said of the new offices.
At nearby Beacon Hill Elementary, where 60 percent of the 343 students received subsidized lunches, principal Margie Kates is also excited about Amazon symbolism.
''This is an industry that values books and that's what we are all about -- reading and literacy,'' Kates said. ''The kids will see that everyone likes to read, and this also ties in with our classes on how technology works for people.''
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