Amazon is expanding again.
The Seattle Times reported that city permit records indicate another downtown expansion for the Seattle online retail giant, this time into at least five floors of an office building at 1800 Ninth Avenue in the Denny Triangle, just outside the South Lake Union neighborhood boundary.
It’s yet another sign of Amazon’s huge growth. The company is expected to break ground this year on the first block in a planned three-block complex just north of downtown Seattle, having just closed the purchase of the property for more than $200 million. The development will eventually include three towers and related buildings.
Longer term, Amazon also has options to buy another large chunk of land just to the north. This is in addition to the company’s current headquarters campus in South Lake Union, which it just acquired for more than $1.1 billion.
The expansions make sense, as the company needs more space for its people. Amazon had 20,000 employees at the end of 2008 and is quickly approaching the 90,000 employee mark.
Last November, San Francisco-based developer Stanford Hotels filed paperwork to build a 15-to-16 story hotel right smack dab in the heart of Amazon’s campus.
Previously on GeekWire: Amazon patents the milkman
