[curiouscats]

From the article: "Buying land is a major shift for Amazon, which historically relied on a handful of developers to find property, build fairly simple warehouses and rent them back to the company."

That is the news in my opinion. They were renting before, in the last 2 years they started buying a lot of land (they still rent a lot too).

[devoutsalsa]

I’d guess that Amazon doesn’t want to be at the mercy of landlords that jack up the prices. Rent increases can eat into your margin.

[mywittyname]

They probably weren't very experienced in the area of property development/management and decided to get some partners early on to help out.

I'm sure now their holdings are large enough to justify an entire property management division.

[merely-unlikely]

That and, "The new facilities can be 100 feet tall or more, are packed with state-of-the-art automation and require lots of electricity... The new facilities can cost twice as much to build as typical warehouses, which currently run about $200 per square foot. So Amazon is courting a new class of investor to help finance the expansion"

Their development model has shifted and the warehouses are becoming more advanced and specialized.