Amazon explores take over of landmarked former Lord & Taylor building

Six months after Amazon abandoned plans to bring its second North American headquarters to Queens, the e-commerce behemoth continues its hunt for space in New York City.

The company is reportedly eyeing properties in Midtown West and Sunset Park, and now, Amazon has its sights set on the historic Fifth Avenue building that formerly housed Lord & Taylor’s flagship store, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Amazon has been in talks with shared office space startup WeWork, which brokered a deal to buy the landmarked building for $850 million in 2017, to rent as much as the entire 12-story building to the tech and retail giant, according to the newspaper.

The deal could bring thousands of employees to Fifth Avenue in a symbolic move that would land Amazon in the heart of the corridor’s bustling shopping district. Lord & Taylor occupied the building for more than 100 years before closing its doors in January and has struggled to adapt to the shifting world of retail, while Amazon has positioned its self as a titan of e-commerce and is aggressively expanding across the country.

Amazon is also open to leasing only a portion of the building, people familiar with the negotiations told The Wall Street Journal.

Currently, Amazon has more than 5,000 employees spread across New York City in a variety of sectors. If Amazon strikes a deal at the Fifth Avenue building, it would likely hold some 4,000 employees although it is unclear if those workers would be relocated from elsewhere or if the company would hire thousands of new employees.

In the meantime, Amazon is mulling multiple locations for hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space, including at the historic Farley Post Office and two towers in the Manhattan West megaproject.