Last month, the Seattle-based e-commerce company Amazon confirmed that it signed a lease for an office in University City’s Campus Pointe office complex which is said to have space for 500 employees.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, although Amazon already has a small office in Solana Beach, this new complex, which is located at 10300 Campus Point Drive and consists of 107,000 square feet of space, is its first significant office/engineering expansion in the United States (sandiegouniontribune.com) .
In an article from the San Diego Union-Tribune, Head of Tech, San Diego Kevin Carroll said, “UC San Diego graduates 10,000 students a year. If you are Google or Amazon, you’re looking at that and saying there is going to be a good local pipeline of talent” (sandiegouniontribune.com).
President and CEO of San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp Mark Cafferty suggested that the talent in San Diego could be the reason why large tech companies, such as Google and Amazon, choose to establish offices here (sandiegouniontribune.com).
According to San Diego Union-Tribune Reporter Mike Freeman, Google also chose San Diego for their satellite office due to “...its acquisitions of local start-ups, including sensor developer Lumedyne Technologies” (sandiegouniontribune.com).
While Amazon hasn’t explicitly stated who they plan to hire for the UC location, on their website it lists 28 job openings with positions from “Software Development Engineer” to “World Artist.” The job openings relate to software development, technical business development, game development, and even human resources (amazon.jobs).
The NBC website describes how last month, Amazon also announced its plans to set up another office in the US. They requested proposals from cities to house the second headquarters location. It could potentially employ more than 50,000 people. Any city had the opportunity to put their bid in until October 19; however, Amazon did state that it would give preference to cities with 1 million residents or more (nbcsandiego.com).
According to an Amazon spokesperson, “San Diego has the geographic proximity to international markets, unparalleled quality of life, and workforce talent that companies like Amazon are looking for. So, Mayor Faulconer’s office directed the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation to coordinate a regional response” (nbcsandiego.com).
Due to strict confidentiality agreements, Executive Vice President and Regional Market Director of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. Daniel Ryan declined to comment on exactly when Amazon will be moving into the Campus Pointe location.
