Is Amazon bringing one of its bookstores to LA?

Los Angeles might be gaining a new bookstore, and it’s not a scrappy, independent outfit. The Los Angeles Business Journal is reporting that Amazon, online purveyor of everything under the sun, has been poking around a few LA-area neighborhoods looking for the perfect site for its newest brick-and-mortar bookstore.

Steve McClurkin, a leasing broker with EB Development in San Diego who represents Amazon’s bookstores, confirmed with the Journal that the online powerhouse has been looking for suitable space in Southern California for “a little over a year.”

Brokers confirmed to the Journal that Old Pasadena, Melrose Avenue between West Hollywood and the Fairfax neighborhood, and Westfield Century City (which is undergoing an extensive makeover) were some of the places Amazon has eyed. It is also rumored—but not confirmed—that the internet mega-retailer was looking in Westwood, too.

At the Westfield Century City, "a broker who represents retail tenants said a Westfield representative recently indicated that Amazon would be taking space among the renovated storefronts," says the Journal, but Westfield reps wouldn't confirm.

Avison Young broker Derrick Moore told the Pasadena Star-News that the Amazon scout who visited Pasadena was looking for “about 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.”

Amazon Books, as the stores are called, are described on the company’s site as “a physical extension of Amazon.com,” aimed at combining “the benefits of offline and online shopping to help you find books and devices you’ll love.”

But Andrea Vuleta, executive director of the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association, told the Star-News that the stores are a just a creative way to get people to set up Amazon accounts. “They couldn’t do a cash transaction when I was there,” she said.

According to it website, Amazon already has four of it bookstores open across the U.S. now, including one in a Westfield mall in San Diego.

• Amazon May Be Looking to Book Space in L.A. [LA Business Journal]
• Old Pasadena under consideration for Amazon bookstore [Pasadena Star-News]