Amazon Reportedly Honing In On Northern Virginia Site For HQ2
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Those hoping to have Amazon name Pittsburgh as the location for its second headquarters got some bad news on Saturday.
According to a report by The Washington Post, Amazon has held advanced discussions about putting the highly sought-after facility in the Crystal City area of Arlington, Va.
The discussions add speculation that the site in Virginia, that many considered the favorite for what Amazon is promising as 50,000 high-paying jobs, in honing in on the prize.
According to the Post report, Amazon is so close to making its choice that Crystal City's top real estate developer pulled some of its buildings off the leasing market and officials in the area have discussed how to make an announcement to the public following the midterm elections.
At a conference in New York on Thursday, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, said: "Ultimately the decision will be made with intuition after gathering and studying a lot of data - for a decision like that, as far as I know, the best way to make it is you collect as much data as you can, you immerse yourself in that data but then you make the decision with your heart."
The news comes on the heels of a judge ruling that Pittsburgh and Allegheny County have 30 days to release the region's proposal for Amazon's second headquarters. The judge ruled the city and county failed to prove the bid was exempt under the "Right-To-Know Law."
Both the city and county plan to appeal the ruling.
Amazon, which has said since early this year that it will make its final decision by the end of the year, plans to make $5 billion in capital investments in the city it chooses for HQ2.