Amazon is planning to open a brick-and-mortar bookstore and cafe in Manhattan as it pushes deeper into a market it has come to dominate, The Post has learned.
Amazon Books is slated to open in Hudson Yards, the massive retail, commercial and residential space developed by Related Cos. and Oxford Properties Group, sources tell The Post.
“I don’t know if the final lease was signed yet, but I know the deal is happening,” one source said. “There’s no way that deal is dying.”
The Hudson Yards stores are projected to open in late 2018 or early 2019, a second source said.
It would be the first East Coast store planned by the giant e-tailer. The launch store opened last year in an upscale mall in Seattle, the company’s headquarters. Amazon was so secretive about that deal it was code-named Project Anne.
An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on a New York store, but confirmed that it will open a second location in San Diego later this year.
The physical stores are another way for Amazon to sell its own line of books. If it is like the Seattle location, it would double as a showroom for Kindle e-readers and Fire tablets.
Sandeep Mathrani, the chief executive of mall operator General Growth Properties, got into hot water earlier this year when he let slip during an earnings call that Amazon plans to open hundreds of retail bookstores.
Amazon also scored a $30 million contract to sell e-books to New York City schools, the nation’s largest school district, according to the Wall Street Journal. The contract comes with a $34.5 million option to extend for two more years.