AMZN Amazon.com Inc

By Keiko Morris 

Online retailing giant Amazon.com Inc. plans to open its first New York City bookstore in Manhattan's Time Warner Center, the company said late Wednesday.

The 4,000-square-foot store is slated to open in the spring in the Shops at Columbus Circle on the edge the Central Park. The multistory shopping center, owned by Related Cos., is home to clothing and shoe stores such as Coach and Cole Haan as well as several upscale restaurants, including Per Se.

Amazon is excited with its location in the Time Warner Center, a spokeswoman said in an email. A Related Cos. spokeswoman also expressed excitement with the deal.

Amazon has been making a push into the brick-and-mortar retail sector after focusing on online sales for many years.

Amazon opened its first brick-and-mortar bookstore in Seattle in 2015 and now has two others -- in San Diego and in Portland, Ore. Plans are in the works for stores in Chicago and Dedham, Mass.

The company is considering a location in the large shopping center under development in Hudson Yards by Related Cos. and Oxford Properties Group. That development, however, isn't expected to be completed until 2018.

Amazon is entering a retail property market that has seen drops in asking rents and increased vacancies in major corridors as retailers grapple with the pressures of online shopping.

In the third quarter, availability increased in nine of the 11 Manhattan retail submarkets tracked by real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield, compared with the same period a year ago.

The highest rates of availability, which includes vacant space and space that will be vacant, were 29.3% for lower Fifth Avenue from 42nd to 49th streets and 23.4% for the Meatpacking District.

Average asking rents fell from 18.1% to 2.3% in all the shopping districts except for lower Manhattan.

Write to Keiko Morris at Keiko.Morris@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 04, 2017 22:26 ET (03:26 GMT)

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