Amazon picks New York City and Northern Virginia for its split ‘HQ2’: Report

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Amazon sparked a bidding frenzy in September 2017 when it announced it would invest over $5 billion to create an “HQ2” in addition to its home base in Seattle and hire up to 50,000 people.

Amazon.com Inc could announce as early as Tuesday that it has selected New York City and Northern Virginia to be the sites for its second and third headquarters, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Other cities may also receive major sites as part of Amazon’s decision that would end a more-than-year-long contest that started with 238 candidates and ended with a surprise split of its so-called “HQ2”, WSJ said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Amazon sparked a bidding frenzy in September 2017 when it announced it would invest over $5 billion to create an “HQ2” in addition to its home base in Seattle and hire up to 50,000 people.

Amazon is dividing the second headquarters evenly between New York’s Long Island City and the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia, the Journal said.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Cities and states promised billions of dollars of tax breaks and other inducements in exchange for Amazon’s “HQ2”. They also handed over infrastructure, labour and other data that could prove useful in other ways to the world’s largest online retailer.

The company was planning to split its second headquarters evenly between two cities and among the finalists with which Amazon was holding advanced talks were Dallas, Long Island City in New York and Arlington near Washington, D.C., Reuters reported last week, citing sources.

The New York Times had also reported last week that Amazon was finalizing plans to select the Long Island City neighbourhood of Queens, New York and the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia.