Amazon to Open New 431,000-Sq. Ft. Office in London in 2017

By Ioana Neamt, Associate Editor

London—Amazon Inc. recently announced plans to quit its UK base of 16 years in Slough, Berkshire, and move to a brand new office in east London in 2017.

The company will move into a new corporate office at Principal Place, a £300 million mixed-use development set to open in 2016. London is thus set to become Amazon’s principal home in the UK, as the company revealed that all corporate employees will be located in the city by the summer of 2015. Amazon currently has two corporate offices in the British capital: 60 Holburn Viaduct which opened in 2013 and the Amazon Development Center on Glasshouse Yard, completed two years ago.

“We have already invested well over £1 billion and created more than 7,000 permanent jobs across the UK,” says Christopher North, managing director of Amazon.co.uk Ltd. “To support our continued growth in the UK, we have secured this exceptional building giving us the capacity to hire thousands of new employees in London in the coming years, in addition to the thousands of permanent roles we will create across our UK fulfillment and customer service centers.”

Located between Liverpool St. and Shoreditch High St. stations on Norton Folgate, the Foster + Partners-designed Principal Place is a mixed-use development initiated by Brookfield Property Partners, which includes a 600,000-square-foot, 15-story office building and an adjacent residential tower. Amazon will take over 431,000 square feet of office space in the building. The relocation from Slough to Principal Place will provide Amazon with enough office space for more than 5,000 employees.

“Over the last few years Brookfield has made a significant investment in London and this agreement with Amazon continues the momentum that Brookfield has generated in London,” says Martin Jepson, president and COO of Brookfield Property Partners’ European Office Division. “When combined with our adjoining residential tower which we are planning to start early in the New Year, Principal Place is destined to become the ‘go to’ link between the City and the media-tech sector in Hackney and Shoreditch.”

Principal Place will also include half an acre of public piazza and events space, and an additional 20,000 square feet of retail space. The premium mixed-use development will also feature multiple roof terraces offering views across London. Construction on the project is set to begin later this month and be finalized in 2016.

Amazon employees will temporarily occupy 1 Leadenhall Court in spring 2015, in order to provide additional capacity for growth until the opening of Principal Place. The company has yet to disclose which London office will become its new headquarters.