Amazon considers New York and Virginia are divided into second headquarters

After a year of searching for a second home, Amazon is currently looking to build offices in two cities instead of one, which could still have a major impact on the communities it eventually chooses.

Virginia officials and lawmakers have recently been informed by the head of the state's economic development office that Amazon was planning to split its second headquarters, according to a person close to the case.

Officials in Virginia believe that it is likely that Amazon will choose Crystal City in northern Virginia, but the company said nothing definitive, according to the person who was not allowed to speak.

"It's a real secret business," said the person.

One of the other areas that the online retail giant is considering is the city of Long Island, New York, according to a source close to the discussions. Long Island City is a long-standing industrial and transportation hub located between East River and downtown Manhattan. It has become a growing neighborhood of redeveloped waterfront buildings and refurbished warehouses, with a sustainable industrial base and a thriving arts and technology scene.

Amazon was discreet about the process and declined to comment on the latest news. There has been intense competition to win the company, some offering tax incentives in the order of billions of dollars. Amazon launched its search for a second headquarters in September 2017, initially receiving 238 proposals before reducing the list to 20 in January.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo met with Amazon officials in his offices in New York City two weeks ago, according to the source, who was not allowed to discuss negotiations and talks. expressed under the guise of anonymity. Cuomo proposed to go to Amazon's hometown of Seattle to continue the talks, the source said.

Cuomo told reporters on Tuesday that Amazon was watching Long Island City, though it was not a finalist. He said winning on Amazon would give an economic boost to the entire state, and joked that he was ready to change his name to "Amazon Cuomo" to attract the society.

About 135,000 people or more live in Long Island City and the neighboring towns of Sunnyside and Woodside, and the median household earns about $ 63,500 a year, a little more than the city average, according to the Furman Center think tank from New York University on urban and housing policies. About 40% of people over 25 in the Long Island City area have a bachelor's degree or higher, slightly above the city's rate, according to data from the Furman Center.

The New York Times announced Monday that Amazon was in the process of finalizing agreements to settle in Long Island City and in the Crystal City section of Arlington, Virginia, just in the morning. outside Washington, DC The Wall Street Journal, which had for the first time announced plans to split the seat between two seats. cities, said that Dallas is still a candidate. Both newspapers quoted anonymous people familiar with the decision-making process.

A spokesman for the Dallas Regional Chamber declined to comment.

The cities of Long Island and Crystal City would meet Amazon's requirements for new location: both near metropolitan areas of more than one million, they have nearby international airports, direct access to public transit and a space for development for society.

Selecting these areas would create more jobs in already very rich places. Jed Kolko, the chief economist at the job site, has indeed said that choosing New York and the Washington area would be "a far less radical decision than one does not". imagined "and another example of" rich places getting richer ".

The company initially promised to create 50,000 new high-paying jobs at a site, which its founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, said would be "an equivalent" of its home base in Seattle. Amazon could now divide these jobs equally between two locations, the Wall Street Journal reported, with 25,000 each.

Of the 20 sites on Amazon's list, others declined to comment or said they did not hear about the online retailer.

Jay Ash, head of economic development in Mbadachusetts, said on Tuesday that he had "no recent contact" with Amazon about a Boston headquarters, but his office is still discussing with the company other opportunities. Earlier this year, Amazon unveiled plans to expand its offices in the Boston Harbor District, with the goal of creating 2,000 new technology jobs by 2021 in areas such as learning. automatic and robotics.

Amazon announced that it could spend more than $ 5 billion on the new head office over the next 17 years, about the size of its current Seattle headquarters, which includes 33 buildings, 23 restaurants and 40,000 employees .

The company already employs 600,000 people. This is expected to increase as new warehouses are built across the country to deal with online orders. Amazon recently announced that it would pay all employees at least $ 15 an hour, but employees in its second headquarters will receive much higher pay – on average over $ 100,000 a year.

Earlier this month, Bezos had said during a live interview in New York that the final decision would depend on intuition.

"You immerse yourself in this data, but then you make that decision with your heart," he said.