Amazon To Split Second HQ Between New York And Virginia
RICHMOND, Va. (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — Amazon will split its second headquarters between Long Island City in New York and Crystal City in Virginia.
The online retailer is expected to make an official announcement later Tuesday. The person was not authorized to speak publicly ahead of that announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Several North Texas cities had banded together to create a joint proposal to lure Amazon to the area. The Dallas Regional Chamber and Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce released a video that went along with their pitch.
DFW leaders were hoping the pitch and facts about North Texas would make a splash at Amazon and lure HQ2 and the 50,000 jobs expected with it, 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 more than 200 proposals before narrowing the list to 20 in January.
In addition to the split headquarters, Amazon announced that it has selected Nashville for a new Center of Excellence. The operations business is responsible for the company's customer fulfillment, transportation, supply chain, and other similar activities.
Launched in 1995 as an online bookstore, Amazon now produces movies, makes voice-activated Echo devices, runs the Whole Foods grocery chain, offers online services to businesses and designs its own brands of furniture, clothing and diapers.
Amazon's employee total has ballooned to more than 610,000 worldwide, and that's expected to increase as it builds more warehouses across the country.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
