Amazon coming to Green Acres Mall with electronics kiosk
Amazon.com Inc. is expanding its presence on Long Island, this time with the planned opening of a kiosk at Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream.
The online retail giant plans to hire five full-time employees to run a 299-square-foot kiosk in the mall, according to the Town of Hempstead Industrial Development Agency. The kiosk will display and sell Amazon-branded consumer electronics, the IDA said.
The IDA board Wednesday approved the mall’s request to add Amazon Retail LLC as a tenant, said Edie M. Longo, IDA deputy executive director and chief financial officer. Mall tenants must receive IDA approval because Green Acres is receiving IDA benefits, Longo said.
Amazon Retail LLC’s registered business address is 410 Terry Ave., Seattle, Washington, the same address as Amazon’s corporate headquarters, according to public records.
Amazon and Macerich Co., owner of the mall, did not respond to requests for comment.
Amazon plans to open new brick-and-mortar retail stores, chief executive Jeff Bezos said during an annual shareholders meeting on Tuesday. So far, Amazon has one bookstore in Seattle and is constructing its second in San Diego.
“It’s an experiment,” Bezos said, according to the Seattle Times. “We’re definitely going to open additional stores. How many? We don’t know yet.”
On Long Island, Amazon has agreed to lease a 161,360-square-foot facility in Bethpage, where Goya Foods Inc. closed its distribution center in July after 17 years to move to Jersey City, New Jersey. Amazon plans to use the space as part of its vast distribution infrastructure, a company spokesman confirmed in April.
Last year, Amazon’s grocery delivery business, AmazonFresh, began to offer same-day and early next-day delivery in some parts of Long Island with a $299 Prime Fresh yearly membership.
Green Acres must disclose new tenants in accordance with an agreement for tax breaks it received in December 2014. Santa Monica, California-based Macerich was granted a sales-tax exemption of $6 million, a mortgage-recording tax exemption and an agreement for a payment in lieu of taxes on its planned $79 million renovation to the approximately 1.7 million-square-foot mall.
The mall qualified as a tourist destination under IDA rules because it brings at least 51 percent of its business from outside the county. According to survey results from Macerich, 73 percent of the mall’s shoppers come from outside Nassau County.
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