Plans for Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN) show that the tech giant wants to put a place called “Project Lucy” underground in the old Macy’s building in downtown Seattle. There, it will test an automated storage and retrieval system.
In December, documents filed with the city said that the general office space in the southeast part of the sub-basement would be turned into research and development office space. Changes to the inside would make space for storing displays and training employees.
In the filings, Amazon isn’t mentioned by name, but an Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN) store development leader who works out of a South Lake Union office building is listed as the tenant and financially responsible party.
Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN) has chosen not to say anything.
Since December, the Harrington Group has filed fire protection hazard analysis documents with details about Project Lucy. These documents have an “AMZN” label on them.
One of the documents says, “Project Lucy is a “test case,” “pilot,” or “lab” space for testing the Tenant’s operation (mostly back-of-house) for softlines (clothing, shoes) retail spaces.” “There will be a mix of folded or rolled (possibly in plastic bags) clothes, shoes, and clothes on hangers stored in pods in a specific area of the Tenant Space.”
The document talks about an automatic storage and retrieval system in which clothes from different brands are rolled up and stored in 9-foot-tall storage towers called pods. When a customer orders an item, self-driving robots will take the item’s pod from the storage field and bring it to picking stations, where employees will grab the item. The same process would be used to return the robot.
Amazon’s New Brick-and-Mortar Venture
Amazon has started a new brick-and-mortar venture that focuses on clothing and apparel. The records don’t say which retail sites it is testing the technology for. In January of this year, the company opened its first Amazon Style store in Glendale, California.
The company hasn’t opened a clothing store in the Seattle area, but it has recently started hiring for jobs there, including a site manager for an Amazon Style testing lab.
In 2017, Amazon rented the top six floors of the building for its Blueshift office. The historic, 93-year-old building at 300 Pine St. was a Bon Marché store for most of its life. It became Macy’s in 2005, and it will close in February 2020.
Amazon temporarily moved its employees out of the building in March, saying that it was worried about public safety.
City records show that the Japanese clothing store Uniqlo and the Portland fitness club Knot Springs are getting ready to move into the lower floors.
Featured Image: Megapixl © Jetcityimage
