Former Graphic Arts Inc. building at 41st and Chestnut (Photo West Philly Local).

Last August, we reported that Amazon had bought the former Graphic Arts Inc. building at 41st and Chestnut, but we weren’t certain to what use the e-commerce giant was going to put the 35,000 square-foot space. Now, we know: Prime Now LLC has applied for, and been granted, a permit to operate a “food establishment” on that site.

Prime Now is a service that Amazon operates in some urban areas — not Philadelphia yet — that features two-hour delivery for commonplace household goods, from groceries to socks to electronics. Amazon has also hinted that it might be expanding Prime Now into the restaurant delivery arena. As such, this new service is positioned to compete directly with supermarket and convenience delivery services like Instacart and GoPuff, as well as food delivery services like Grubhub, Caviar and Eat24.  Continue Reading

The old two-story brick building at the corner of 41st and Chestnut may soon become home to an Amazon warehouse, according to a recent report by Naked Philly. The approximately 35,000 square feet building with a large parking space was purchased in 2011 by Campus Apartments, but has been sitting vacant since then. Before the purchase, the building had been occupied by Graphic Arts Inc. for decades.

No more information is currently available, like what type of warehouse it will be (general storage or Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service) and when it might open. We’ll keep you posted when we have more details.

Just a reminder that Amazon also opened a pickup store on Penn’s campus last year.