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SEATTLE – Amazon on Tuesday presented plans for two of the country's largest economic development projects, announcing the creation of mbadive outposts in New York and Arlington, Virginia.
The Two Sites, Long The cities of Island City in Queens and Crystal City in Arlington, just outside Washington, will each host at least 25,000 employees each, the company said. in a statement. He also said the new sites would require $ 5 billion in construction and other investments.
The company also announced that it would develop a smaller site in Nashville, focused on operations and logistics. Amazon said the site would create 5,000 jobs.
Amazon, based in Seattle, made these commitments under agreements with local governments.
Amazon could receive more than $ 2 billion in tax incentives in the two largest cities. , the company said in its announcement. Of this amount, $ 1.2 billion will come from the Excelsior program in New York State, a discretionary tax credit. In Virginia, the company could receive up to $ 550 million in financial incentives from the state. The two programs are linked to the number of jobs created by the company – if the hiring of Amazon does not reach the forecasts, the incentives will be less important.
"These two sites will allow us to attract world-clbad talent that will help us continue. invent for customers for years to come, "said in a statement Jeff Bezos, general manager of Amazon.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, of New York, said in a statement that "thanks to Amazon's commitment to expand its headquarters in Long Island City, New York can proudly say that we have attracted one of the largest and most competitive economic development investments in the history of the United States ". 19659002] This announcement ended a raging 14-month competition between cities across the country seeking to attract the technology giant for what its executives originally billed as their second seat, HQ2. Many politicians have seen an opportunity to remake their city or neighborhood in the era of technology. Critics have warned against the use of public money to help one of the most profitable companies in the world and against the risk of rising housing costs and housing problems. circulation.
Instead of choosing a site, Amazon chose two. The decision will allow the company to invest in the labor markets of New York and Washington and maintain bargaining power with two localities for decades. At the same time, the major new sites will make Amazon one of the largest private sector employers in the East Coast technology sector and could, very slightly, help move technology talent to the East, far from Silicon Valley and Seattle.
The company has announced its intention to start. hire in New York, Virginia and Tennessee in 2019.
Jay Carney, senior vice president of Amazon, said the company had reviewed more than 100 aspects of each site, but "during the process it became clear that the ability to find and attract talent would serve as a criterion.
At a meeting of several hours in August, the team realized that it would be easier to hire the number of workers it wanted if it shared the seat between two domains. "We also believe that it is easier for communities to absorb a floor of 25,000 people," he said.
Amazon announced its search in September 2017 for what Mr. Bezos said was "totally equal to our Seattle headquarters." 240 sites submitted bids. They used marketing gadgets – Tucson tried to send a giant saguaro cactus – and formal proposals such as training programs and billions of tax incentives.
In January, the online retailer reduced the list to 20 places, with places in 9 of the 10 largest regions of the country. In the end, Amazon chose to locate in two wealthy areas with many highly skilled talent – and where Amazon already employed more corporate entities than anywhere else outside the Bay Area and its hometown, Seattle. Mr. Bezos also owns homes in the two new areas.
Both sites have parallels. Both are sitting right in front of a river from the heart of an iconic metropolis. Both are also considered to have a lot of unfulfilled potential: Crystal City is a neighborhood filled with office buildings developed in the 1970s for defense contractors, but experienced a high number of vacancies following the reorganization of the Pentagon in the years following the 9/11 attacks. And Long Island City is a mixed neighborhood that is home to new apartment towers, low-rise buildings and the country's largest social housing complex.
As research continued, anticipation sometimes turned to antipathy and anxiety, causing concern among residents. how their regions could handle a potential housing shortage and congestion that could arise with an influx of well-paid workers. Many regions also debated whether one of the world's largest corporations, headed by the richest man in the world, needed taxpayer funds.
Amazon was always going to choose the best job market, but the "HQ2 Process Engineering" was the competition. Margaret O. Mara, historian at the University of Washington, said, "This is what has characterized Amazon and other technology companies from the very beginning," she said. to pay any tax unless you are absolutely obliged to do so, and they have taken advantage of their market power and the psychic place they occupy to get out of it. "
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