Amazon announced today that it will not open a second corporate headquarters in New York but is still moving forward with plans for Arlington, Virginia.
“After much thought and deliberation, we’ve decided not to move forward with our plans to build a headquarters for Amazon in Long Island City, Queens,” Amazon stated in a press release.
“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.”
In the process of searching for its HQ2 location, Amazon said it would invest $5 billion USD ($6.62 billion CAD) and create approximately 50,000 jobs. Amazon was expected to receive up to $1.2 billion USD ($1.59 billion CAD) in tax credits through New York State’s ‘Excelsior’ program, as well as an additional $325 million USD ($430.55 million CAD) as a cash grant from the ‘Empire State Development’ fund.
Toronto Mayor John Tory recently stated that he’s open to Amazon opening HQ2 in Toronto.
“I’ll just say I’ve communicated with the people of Amazon that we’re still here, they know that,” he stated. “My message to them has continuously been we’d be delighted to have any aspect of Amazon’s operations here including part of their head office.”
Toronto was one of the 20 finalists selected for consideration for Amazon’s second headquarters but eventually came up short.
Amazon says it doesn’t intend to re-open the HQ2 search at this time, noting, “we will proceed as planned in Northern Virginia and Nashville, and we will continue to hire and grow across our 17 corporate offices and tech hubs in the U.S. and Canada.”
Source: NYT, Amazon Canada
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
