Amazon has announced plans to open a major new office in London as part of plans to double its UK workforce to around 5,000.
The company will be moving employees currently based in Slough to Principal Place (pictrued below), a £500m site situated between Liverpool Street and Shoreditch High Street stations in the east of the capital.
The 15-storey building, currently still under development, is due to be completed in 2016, with Amazon moving in to occupy around two-thirds of the 600,000 square foot facility in early 2017.
"We have already invested well over £1bn and created more than 7,000 permanent jobs across the UK," said Amazon UK managing director Christopher North.
"To support our continued growth in the UK, we have secured this exceptional building giving us the capacity to hire thousands of new employees in London in the coming years, in addition to the thousands of permanent roles we will create across our UK fulfilment and customer service centres."
The company currently has two corporate offices in London, including 60 Holborn Viaduct, which opened last year, and the Amazon Development Centre, near the Barbican, which opened in 2012. Amazon says that the opening of the new facility will mean all its UK employees will now be situated in the capital.
London mayor Boris Johnson said: "Our city is the perfect home for top tech talent and I am very pleased that Amazon have confirmed their intention to create thousands of new jobs at a major new base in east London."
Amazon has been investing heavily in expanding its operations across the world, including a $2bn investment into India and a major expansion of its presence in China, as it looks to ensure it keeps a leading presence in the world ecommerce market.
