Amazon’s not wasting time shipping itself to Long Island City: they will begin moving staff into One Court Square, the former Citicorp Building, next year.
The former Citigroup building will serve as a headquarters while work gets underway on its new HQ2 campus in the neighborhood. Savanna, the real estate company that bought the tower last year, announced Amazon would lease 1 million square feet of space and that the e-commerce giant had already signed a letter of intent.
“We’re thrilled that Amazon selected One Court Square as a critical component of its HQ2 plans for Long Island City,” Savanna managing partner Nicholas Bienstock said in a statement. “It’s truly a privilege for Savanna to have the opportunity to partner with Amazon in a transaction that has the potential for tremendous job creation for New York City, and we look forward to a successful execution that will bring extraordinary benefits to the neighborhood, the city and region as a whole.”
Citigroup had been the anchor tenant in the tower since 1990, but planned on vacating office space on 31 floors in 2020. The financial giant will speed up the relocation of its workers in the first half of next year to make way for Amazon.
“We have committed to vacate certain floors at One Court Square early and move about 1,100 of the colleagues who presently work there to alternate locations, including Long Island City and our Tribeca Headquarters,” Citi CEO Michael Corbat said in a press release. “Given what it would mean to New York and Long Island City to have Amazon establish a significant presence here, we want to do our part to make it happen.”
