Amazon has officially acquired the historic Lord & Taylor Building at 424 Fifth Avenue in Midtown, Manhattan. Although Amazon and WeWork, the building’s former owner, have not released any statements on the deal, the transaction is reportedly valued between $978 million and $1.15 billion.
The acquisition adds 660,000 square feet to Amazon’s New York City footprint, bringing its total to more than 2.6 million. Additional properties include a 335,000-square-foot lease at 460 West 34th Street, a 360,000-square-foot office at 5 Manhattan West, 400,000 square feet at 7 West 34th Street, and an 850,000-square-foot logistics center in Staten Island.
The Lord & Taylor Building was completed in 1914 by architects Starrett & Van Vleck. Since then, the property served as a flagship destination and headquarters for the luxury retailer. Lord & Taylor sold the property in 2019 to WeWork, which hoped to reposition the building as its own New York headquarters and a hub of co-working suites. Those plans were derailed following the company’s botched bid to go public and a slew of scandals and lawsuits.
While Amazon has not confirmed how it intends to utilize the property, the e-commerce giant is expected to repurpose the building as its New York City headquarters.
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“A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”
I now regret not shopping at
Lord & Taylor during my
1st visit to NYC 3 years ago, but did take a funny picture of a small construction caterpillar tractor parked on 5th in front of the building! Was light traffic and not sure where it came from on that Sunday afternoon? ?
Another nail in the coffin of 5th Avenue as a prestige shopping street. So much has gone from this once great avenue since I first visited as a teenager around 40 years ago. Now a pale shadow of its former self.
@Paul – Fifth Avenue lost its luster decades ago. Now its just a regular commercial district. Even the high end part of Fifth Avenue (north of 50th Street) isn’t what it used to be.
Fifth Avenue has become totally declasse,filled with ugly fat tourists and outer borough riff raff.
Madison Avenue seems unknown to those cattle.
It’s our’s, and let’s keep it that way.