Amazon expanding on South Side
Shopping Amazon.com in Spanish? Thank the company’s Pittsburgh office
Shoppers who search Amazon.com in Spanish can thank workers at the company’s SouthSide Works location for the bilingual feature.
Since the Sidney Street office opened with 50 workers in January 2017, dubbed PIT10, employees have been applying their expertise in machine translation and speech science to develop products and services in multiple languages, as well as work related to Amazon’s voice-activated assistant Alexa. Other teams are trying to integrate Alexa technology into cars.
Now, the office plans to hire another 125 tech workers and add another 22,000 square feet, doubling thespace, to accommodate them.
The expansion should be complete this summer, Bill Kaper, general manager of the Pittsburgh Tech Hub, told a small crowd during a Thursday morning open house.
The audience of media and local officials was guided through the highly secure office, skirting an open office dotted with white boards on supporting pillars and low cubicle walls bearing notes, charts and, in one case, a drawing of Spider-Man flashing a peace sign.
PIT10 is one of a dozen socalled Tech Hubs across the country.
While the Seattle-based e-commerce giant maintains the expansion is happening independently from its closely watched considerations for a second headquarters, local officials didn’t miss the opportunity to keep Pittsburgh
on the radar for HQ2.
“Many of us are hopeful the relationship between Pittsburgh and Amazon will continue to grow — wink, wink,” said Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills.
Pittsburgh is one of 20 finalists for HQ2, a project that Amazon has said could bring up to 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in investment over 17 years. Other finalists include Philadelphia; Columbus, Ohio; Newark, N. J.; Boston; and more than one location in the Washington, D.C., area.
Mayor Bill Peduto said that the e-commerce company’s expansion will spur other tech initiatives in the region. “Amazon’s investment today will be met by other investments tomorrow because of the talent that will be drawn here.”
He also addressed the city’s running in HQ2, as well as the late winter road conditions the area is known for.
“A lot of people ask, ‘Why pursue something like the challenge of Amazon? The city can’t handle 50,000 [more] people?’” Mr. Peduto said.
“This is a city that had 700,000 people. And we have 310,000 today. If we don’t have over 100,000 people coming here over the course of the next 15 years — you think we have potholes today? We won’t be able to maintain the infrastructure that we have.”