Amazon’s HQ2

When grassroots activists and local politicians first started rallying a few months ago against Amazon’s intention to build a second headquarters in New York City, the odds that they could derail the plans of one of the nation’s most profitable, powerful companies looked slim.

Today, opponents got their wish sooner than many expected — and their reaction is a mix of surprise, joy, and, for some, disappointment. Many had hoped Amazon would reach a compromise with activists who wanted a better deal for the city’s working class in exchange for the $3 billion in tax breaks the company was set to receive for its massive development in Long Island City, Queens.

Faced with mounting opposition from New York politicians, activists, and labor unions, Amazon on Thursday, February 14, abruptly announced it was scrapping its plan to build a new headquarters in the Long Island City section of Queens, New York.

In what is a startling and rare defeat for the $800 billion tech giant, the company said in a statement that “a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project we and many others envisioned in Long Island City.”

Amazon is reportedly reconsidering its contentious move to New York City, according to a report from the Washington Post, but some opponents are questioning if the talk is a serious threat. It could be an attempt to scare critics who wanted to block Amazon’s planned development of a second headquarters in the city.

Since Amazon announced back in November that one of its new HQ2 locations would be in New York City, the company has faced a mounting tide of fierce opposition from the city council, community organizations, and labor unions that were left out of the decision-making process.

Amazon’s 14-month-long contest for a second headquarters is finally over. But for the two locations it ultimately chose — an area of Northern Virginia Amazon is calling “National Landing” and Long Island City, New York — the journey has just begun.

The addition of Amazon’s HQ2 means that potentially 25,000 new employees will swarm each of those areas in the coming years.

It’s finally over.

After more than a year of relentless media hype and desperate pleas from city officials, Amazon has finally announced the location(s) of its new HQ2 headquarters: Northern Virginia’s newly created National Landing neighborhood outside of Washington, D.C., and Long Island City in Queens, New York, situated across the East River from Manhattan.

Update: This post was initially published on Nov. 6, before the Amazon HQ2 locations were confirmed.

And then there were three.

Amazon is in advanced talks about putting Amazon’s second headquarters, commonly referred to as HQ2, in the Crystal City neighborhood of Arlington County, Virginia, according to the Washington Post.

The larger D.C. area was considered a likely candidate for HQ2 due to its proximity to CEO Jeff Bezos’s home and, more importantly, federal lawmakers. Three of Amazon’s 20 finalists were located there — Washington, D.C., Montgomery County and Northern Virginia — suggesting that the place had a better chance than others.

After more than a year of fanfare, competition and city government prostrations, Amazon’s announcement of its second headquarters location is imminent.

Back in September 2017 the e-commerce company first asked for proposals from North American cities on where to house its HQ2, which would come with 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in capital spending for the winning city.