Amazon Expands U.K. Headquarters

Amazon is expanding the size of its new U.K. headquarters to support the growth of its Prime Video service in Europe, according to Bloomberg.

The world’s largest online retailer will occupy the entire 15 floors of the newly constructed tower on the edge of the City of London, after initially having planned to only take 11. The additional space will house 450 new research and development recruits for its on-demand movie service.

“The U.K. is a fantastic place to find talent and we feel good about building a global R&D center here," Doug Gurr, head of Amazon’s U.K. business, said at the opening of the site. “We’re very confident we’ll be able to recruit everyone we need.

Amazon joins a list of large U.S. tech firms, including Snap, Facebook and Google, in doubling down on London expansion plans ahead of the U.K.’s departure from the European Union. As investment banks plot relocating some operations away from the City of London, landlords are overhauling workspace historically occupied by financial firms in a bid to attract tech companies.

Amazon is expanding its space in the new building, which features a roof garden and surrounded by new cafes and restaurants, amid nervousness in the property market created by uncertainty over the nature of the U.K.’s divorce from the EU. The U.K. is among Amazon’s largest international markets with more than 22,000 full-time staff based in the country. Amazon plans to have at least 24,000 by the end of the year, double the number it had at the end of 2015.