Amazon Plots Major Office Reset as It Slashes Empty Desks

Amazon is preparing one of the largest corporate office recalibrations since the pandemic.

The company plans to eliminate roughly 49,000 desks this year in an effort to cut its office vacancy from about 31 percent to 22.9 percent, according to internal documents obtained by the Puget Sound Business Journal. The move could put more than 10 million square feet of workspace on the chopping block, according to estimates by brokerage SquareFoot.

Executives outlined the strategy during a February meeting of Amazon’s Global Real Estate and Facilities unit. The company intends to reach its target by allowing leases to expire, subleasing excess space, “hibernating” lightly used offices and in some cases negotiating early exits from leases where buildings remain largely empty.

For instance, the company is not renewing the lease for its 251,000-square-foot office at 1915 Terry Avenue in downtown Seattle and plans to exit the space in May.

One executive likened the scale of the reduction to eliminating enough desks to seat every attendee at a sold-out Taylor Swift concert.

The cuts come even as Amazon continues to build and occupy new offices in select markets. The company expects to add about 1.8 million square feet of space this year, though it has not disclosed where the additions will land. Several towers under construction in Bellevue, Washington, account for nearly 2 million square feet alone.

The company also recently signed massive leases in Manhattan. In February 2025, Amazon expanded its footprint at 5 Manhattan West by 112,000 square feet through WeWork, which will operate the space on behalf of Amazon.

A couple of months later, Amazon closed on a 330,000-square-foot lease at Property & Building Corp’s 10 Bryant Park.

Amazon’s shifting strategy reflects broader changes in its workforce. Corporate hiring has slowed and the company recently carried out layoffs affecting tens of thousands of employees. Meanwhile, leadership has ramped up spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure; CEO Andy Jassy signaled that AI could further reduce some white-collar roles over time.

The company has also pushed employees back to the office more aggressively, implementing a five-day in-office policy last year. But attendance data still shows large portions of its portfolio underused: internal dashboards show office occupancy averaging about 29 percent across the Americas earlier this year.

The plan highlights how even the biggest office occupiers are still rightsizing after years of expansion fueled by cheap capital and surging tech hiring.

Amazon had roughly 68 million square feet of office space globally as of last year, including about 40 million square feet in the U.S., according to federal filings.

— Holden Walter-Warner