(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. is looking for office space in Miami as founder Jeff Bezos plans his move from the Seattle area.
Amazon is seeking roughly 50,000 square feet (4,650 square meters) of office space, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private.
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that the e-commerce giant is looking for space and said it started the search before Bezos's announcement that he was relocating to Florida.
As Miami has increasingly become a destination for the ultra-wealthy and their companies, demand for offices has boomed. A slew of financial and technology firms have moved to the area or expanded existing footprints, including Ken Griffin's Citadel, Microsoft Corp. and private equity firm Thoma Bravo. The percent of available office space is now below pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to brokerage CBRE Group Inc.
The “unprecedented” demand means there will likely be little top-quality office space in the city lingering on the market, CBRE said.
Bezos, who stepped down as chief executive officer in 2021 to become Amazon's executive chairman, recently bought two homes in Indian Creek, a man-made barrier island in the larger Miami area known as the “Billionaire Bunker.” He paid $79 million for a seven-bedroom mansion after purchasing the neighboring property for $68 million.
Amazon currently has more than 400 employees assigned to the Miami region but, so far, the company has not signed any direct leases for space, the spokesperson said.
--With assistance from Matt Day.
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