Amazon, the e-commerce giant that planned to split a second headquarters between New York and Washington, D.C., won’t try to replace the Big Apple campus scrapped because of opposition from local lawmakers.
Instead, the Seattle-based company said in a statement Thursday, it will proceed “as planned” with an office for 25,000 people in northern Virginia, part of the D.C. metro area, and a Nashville, Tenn., operations center slated to employ 5,000.
“For Amazon, the commitment to build a new headquarters requires positive, collaborative relationships with state and local elected officials who will be supportive over the long-term,” the retailer said. “While polls show that 70 percent of New Yorkers support our plans and investment, a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence.”
Among them was U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman Democrat who had argued that Amazon shouldn’t be given $1.5 billion in incentives while the city is struggling to maintain its subways and many residents struggle to find affordable housing.
“Anything is possible,” she said Thursday on Twitter. “Today was the day a group of dedicated everyday New Yorkers and their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation and the power of the richest man in the world,” a reference to founder Jeff Bezos, who controls a fortune of more than $130 million.
Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers & their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world. https://t.co/nyvm5vtH9k
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 14, 2019
Together, office complexes in Long Island City, just across the East River from Manhattan, and northern Virginia would have given the company founded by Jeff Bezos access to robust talent pools and proximity to international airports, two of the key requirements outlined in 2017.
Amazon already employs 5,000 people in the boroughs of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Staten Island and said it would continue to build those teams.
Its northern Virginia site will be in National Landing, a newly branded neighborhood that also encompasses parts of Pentagon City and Potomac Yard. The company will invest about $2.5 billion to set up operations there and occupy about 4 million square feet with the option of doubling that over the next dozen years, according to county officials.
“The strength of our workforce coupled with our proximity to the nation’s capital makes us an attractive business location,” Arlington County Board Chairwoman Katie Cristol said in November. “But Arlington’s real strength is the decades of planning that have produced one of the most vibrant, civically engaged communities in the world. Those plans have paved the way for this investment.”
The move will also give the Seattle-based company easier access to elected officials at a time when it’s under increasing scrutiny in D.C. President Trump previously claimed the U.S. Postal Service is unfairly subsidizing Amazon’s package deliveries, and he has attacked both Bezos and the Washington Post, which the billionaire owns separately.
The tech giant is getting $573 million in incentives from Virginia, including a $550 million workforce grant, and $102 million from Tennessee.
Amazon’s stock fell slightly to $1,634 in New York trading on Thursday. The company’s sales climbed 31 percent last year to $232.9 billion.
