Amazon has announced that it will delay the completion of its planned second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Additionally the company will close eight of its Amazon Go cashier-less convince stores. File Photo courtesy of Amazon
March 3 (UPI) — In a cost-saving move, retail giant Amazon announced Friday that it will delay construction on a planned second corporate headquarters dubbed “HQ2” in Arlington, Va.
The retail giant also announced Friday that it will close select Amazon Go stores in three cities.
Amazon’s planned 2.1 million square foot office space, with room for 8,000 employees and called Metropolitan Park, is still scheduled to open in June. But it is the 2.8 million square foot office space called PenPlace and intended to be built in a second phase that been delayed.
Amazon says the company still intends to complete the HQ2 project.
“Our second headquarters has always been a multi-year project, and we remain committed to Arlington, Va., and the greater capital region,” John Schoettler, vice president of Amazon’s global real estate and facilities team, said in a statement.
On Friday, Amazon announced that it would be closing eight of its cashier-less Amazon Go convince stores in New York, Seattle and San Fransisco.
“In this case, we’ve decided to close a small number of Amazon Go stores in Seattle, New York, and San Fransisco. We remain committed to the Amazon Go format,” Amazon spokesperson Jessica Martin said in a statement.
The stores will close in April, the company said, adding that some affected employees would move to other locations.
In October, Amazon implemented a corporate hiring freeze and in January the company announced that it would cut 18,000 jobs.
The tech industry has been hit by massive layoffs in recent months, with Meta, Salesforce, Workday, and PayPal all announcing significant job cuts.