Nearly a year after the initial announcement of a new headquarters, Amazon has decided where it’s next move is. Well, sort of. According to new reports, the newest Amazon site will actually be split and perhaps not be a headquarters at all.
New York Times reporters Karen Weise and J. David Goodman say that the company will actually split “HQ2.” The newest outposts will likely be in Long Island City, Queens, and Arlington, Virginia.
The two report that those locations already have the most Amazon employees aside from its host city, Seattle. The news, although not confirmed by Amazon, comes after a year of intense bargaining from other prospective cities. The move is already being criticized as puzzling by some, including Business Insider reporter Dennis Green.
“If Amazon selects two cities for HQ2, as reported, then everything Amazon promised goes out the window. What makes this different from Amazon’s presence in other cities where it has offices, such as Boston or Los Angeles? Will the company refer to both sites, which are hundreds of miles from each other, as HQ2? Or are we just supposed to think of HQ2 as the entire eastern seaboard—any city or town that is accessible from Amtrak’s Acela service between New York and Washington, DC.”
Green continues, arguing that the extensive decision-making process was mostly an excuse for cities to offer increasing incentives. Which, may have stopped with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo:
.@NYGovCuomo on @amazon #HQ2:
“I’ll change my name to Amazon Cuomo if that’s what it takes.”
— Jimmy Vielkind (@JimmyVielkind) November 5, 2018
The Times and The New York Daily News report that New York City offered “hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies” to the company for the potential headquarters. The other incentives for moving to NYC include larger public transportation, a high-volume of BA-educated workers (2.3 million estimated in the metro), and direct channels to the 100-plus academic institutions in the city, including Cornell’s new tech campus on Roosevelt Island.
Stay tuned for more details on the potential Amazon site announcement.