E-tail giant Amazon.com (AMZN -1.14%) famously calls Seattle, Washington "home" (although as it approaches the "Boomer" phase of its lifespan, it's buying a second home in Crystal City, Virginia).
In fact, Amazon likes Seattle so much that this morning it announced plans to expand its presence in a city that it sees as "similar to Seattle" -- Bellevue, Washington, just the other side of Lake Washington from Seattle itself.
Amazon first set up shop in this city next door in 2017, and currently employs more than 2,000 workers there. Now, it aims to grow that headcount by roughly 6,500%, growing employment in Bellevue to 15,000 "well-paid jobs...over the next few years."
15,000 workers will need a place to work. Computer rendering of a new Amazon office tower in Bellevue. Image source: Amazon.com.
Patrick Bannon, president of the Bellevue Downtown Association, pronounced himself "thrilled Amazon will continue to grow here," calling Amazon's announcement "an extraordinary investment in our future and a strong vote of confidence in our talent base." That talent -- the new employees -- should be pretty pleased as well, and not least with the commute.
"In Bellevue, we want to build on our green mobility record, said Amazon in a statement. "Our buildings will be no further than 0.5 miles from the new Sound Transit Link Light Rail station in downtown Bellevue and within 10 minutes walking distance of each other," and "employees will receive free ORCA passes and be eligible for company-subsidized ride share carpool options."
As for who these new employees will be -- who Amazon's hiring -- the company already has 690 jobs up for offer, mostly IT-related. Perhaps the most interesting of all, though, is that Bellevue appears to be the home of Amazon's new Project Kuiper to sell customers broadband internet access ... from space.
