Amazon To Split Second Headquarters Between New York, Virginia
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) — Amazon, which has grown too big for its Seattle hometown, said it will split its much-anticipated second headquarters between New York and northern Virginia.
Each will get 25,000 jobs. In addition, the online retailer said it will open an operations hub in Nashville, creating 5,000 jobs.
Its New York location will be in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, while its Virginia offices will be in a part of Arlington that Amazon is calling National Landing, a made-up moniker for an area around Reagan National Airport that encompasses Crystal City and Potomac Yard.
The decision ends an intense competition between Boston and several North American cities to win Amazon and its promise of 50,000 new high paying jobs at "HQ2." Some locations tried to stand out with stunts, but Amazon made clear that it really wanted incentives, like tax breaks and grants.
Amazon also had sought to be near a metropolitan area with more than a million people, among other criteria.
The company received 238 proposals after it announced its search for a second headquarters in September 2017.
In January, Amazon revealed that the Boston area, along with New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Miami, was among the 20 finalists for the HQ2 site. Amazon said it was considering proposals for both Boston and Somerville.
Boston had pitched the Suffolk Downs site for Amazon to build on. The city also promoted possible collaborations with local universities and its proximity to the MBTA and Logan Airport.
Somerville proposed establishing the second headquarters "along the transit lines that link our adjacent Greater Boston communities."
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh was disappointed in Amazon's decision, saying in a statement, "our future will not be defined by a single company."
"I think Amazon might have missed an opportunity here in Boston because we have the talent in our city and the growth in our city that can work with them," Walsh later told reporters.
"I don't know what more we could have done. I don't look at this as a negative. I look at this as an opportunity we went through. Boston doesn't need HQ2 to be successful. We already are."
Amazon already employs about 1,000 people in Boston and Cambridge.
"I don't need to ask Alexa why Amazon didn't pick Boston," Congressman Seth Moulton tweeted. "We've failed to invest in transportation, and it's costing our economy here in Massachusetts."
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
