Amazon is opening another brick-and-mortar bookstore in 2017 — its 10th such retail location — in downtown Bellevue, Wash.
Building permits, first uncovered by Recode, give the address as 104 Bellevue Square with the plat name as “Cache.” A fashion retail chain by the same name previously occupied a storefront inside the mall, so it’s possible that is where the bookstore will open.
Amazon confirmed to GeekWire that it is planning on opening the store this year, and is currently hiring store managers and associates. A spokesman for the e-commerce giant didn’t provide details on when it would open or confirm where it would be located in the mall.
Bellevue Square, located across Lake Washington from Seattle, matches the description of other locations where Amazon bookstores have landed. The mall features several high-end stores, including a recently opened Whole Foods chain that uses technology to improve grocery shopping.
The first brick-and-mortar Amazon Books opened in University Village in 2015, another high-end shopping center that is home to Seattle’s only Apple Store. (Update: As noted in the comments below, Apple does have other stores in the Seattle region, including one at Bellevue Square.) Amazon has since opened bookstores in San Diego and Portland, Ore. It’s also currently working on five sites in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Massachusetts, Chicago and New Jersey.
Amazon’s expansion into brick-and-mortar bookstores likely isn’t due to the money in book sales. The stores also serve as a showroom for Amazon devices such as the Echo and Echo Dot and allows Amazon to push its Prime service by giving members discounted prices.
Bookstores aren’t the only physical stores Amazon is building, either. The company is currently working on two drive-up grocery outlets in the Seattle area and its Amazon Go convenience store is set to open to the public in the coming months.
