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Amazon May Bring Thousands More Employees To Boston's Seaport

Amazon is negotiating a lease for forthcoming office space at the massive Seaport Square development, a move that could bring thousands of the tech giant's employees to the Boston neighborhood in the next few years.

The negotiations were made public Monday in a regulatory filing with the Boston Development and Planning Agency.

Within an 18-story building, Amazon would be anticipated to house about 2,000 employees. Construction of the building is scheduled to begin this year, and be completed in 2021.

If it signs the initial lease, Amazon would have the option to expand into another building, bringing up to 2,000 additional employees to the area.

As the Boston Business Journal details:

Amazon and WS Development are asking the city for a $5 million property tax break for each lease, in exchange for a commitment in each case that Amazon will hire at least 2,000 employees within the Greater Boston area.

"This project filing is the first step, and we’ll be working with Amazon to make it a reality," Boston Mayor Marty Walsh told business leaders Tuesday evening. "Projects like these are a tremendous vote of confidence in our city’s economy."

Amazon already has office space in Boston and in Cambridge.

According to The Boston Globe, thousands of additional jobs would "make the company one of the region’s biggest private employers."

The Seaport filing is separate from Amazon's well-publicized search for a second headquarters. The tech giant announced in January that the Boston area is among 20 finalists to host so-called HQ2. Amazon said it is considering local bids from the cities of Boston and Somerville.

The second headquarters is expected to generate up to 50,000 new jobs. Amazon plans to make a final decision on its HQ2 later this year.

A new, expanded vision for the long-planned Seaport Square project received approval in November. The project now totals more than 7.6 million square feet of development.

With additional reporting by WBUR's Newscast Unit and The Associated Press

This article was originally published on February 28, 2018.

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Benjamin Swasey Digital Manager
Ben is WBUR's digital news manager.

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