# Amazon Backs Out Of Queens Headquarters



## Dposh167 (Feb 14, 2019)

*Amazon says it will not build a headquarters in New York after mounting opposition*


Amazon will not build a headquarters in New York following mounting opposition, the company said in a statement Thursday.

Amazon said it does not have plans to reopen the search for a replacement location. The company will continue to build its planned headquarters in Virginia and its other planned location in Nashville.

Last week, The Washington Post first reported that Amazon executives were considering backing out of its plans to build an office in the Long Island City neighborhood of New York.


"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 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 said in the statement. The company said it will continue to grow the teams it already has in Staten Island, Brooklyn and Manhattan.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo had warned at a news conference last week following the report that the local and regional leaders would have to answer to voters if Amazon did not ultimately bring its 25,000 jobs to the state.

"You want to diversify your economy? You don't want to just be Wall Street and finance?" Cuomo asked at the conference last week. "We need Amazon."



Local and state leaders had voiced significant opposition after New York City and state had offered the company performance-based incentives amounting to nearly $3 billion. These leaders were not privy to the details of the deal until after Amazon had made its decision. Cuomo said the deal would still bring in $27 billion in revenue in exchange for the incentive package and called the opposition to Amazon "governmental malpractice."



Amazon executives had made attempts to quell local fears about its move into the city. In December, two executives attended a hearing in front of members of New York's City Council where lawmakers addressed questions about how the company would ensure it hired a diverse workforce from the Queens community it was moving into, among other concerns. Council members expressed anger over the closed door deal and accused Amazon's actions of proving it was a bad neighbor.

"I see this as Walmart 2.0 and we're going to continue to fight because we object to the process that has brought us to [this] point," said council member Inez Barron at the December hearing. "You're in for a battle. You're in for a fight."

State Sen. Michael Gianaris, another vocal critic of the Amazon deal who was selectedlast week to serve on the state board that would have had final approval on the Amazon deal, said he would not mind to see the company abandon its plans. Asked if he would consider it a victory if Amazon no longer planned to build its headquarters in NYC, Gianaris said, "Under these terms of the deal that's before us, absolutely."

Some Amazon employees had bought homes in the Long Island City area of Queens even before the company had announced its plans to open a headquarters there, The Wall Street Journal reported in November.

Here is the full statement:

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. 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. While polls show that 70% of New Yorkers support our plans and investment, 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.

We are disappointed to have reached this conclusion—we love New York, its incomparable dynamism, people, and culture—and particularly the community of Long Island City, where we have gotten to know so many optimistic, forward-leaning community leaders, small business owners, and residents. There are currently over 5,000 Amazon employees in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Staten Island, and we plan to continue growing these teams.

We are deeply grateful to Governor Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio, and their staffs, who so enthusiastically and graciously invited us to build in New York City and supported us during the process. Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio have worked tirelessly on behalf of New Yorkers to encourage local investment and job creation, and we can't speak positively enough about all their efforts. The steadfast commitment and dedication that these leaders have demonstrated to the communities they represent inspired us from the very beginning and is one of the big reasons our decision was so difficult.

We do not intend to reopen the HQ2 search at this time. 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.

Thank you again to Governor Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio, and the many other community leaders and residents who welcomed our plans and supported us along the way. We hope to have future chances to collaborate as we continue to build our presence in New York over time.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.


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## Dposh167 (Feb 14, 2019)

I was always in the middle about amazon coming to this city so I dont feel any kind of way about this.


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## nysister (Feb 14, 2019)

Good. It would have been of little advantsge to most New Yorkers.


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## gn1g (Feb 14, 2019)

I'm glad!


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## gn1g (Feb 14, 2019)

I'd like to see them go to a small town, but that is not going to happen.


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## Dposh167 (Feb 14, 2019)

NYC will be alright if Amazon doesn't come here. Now they can focus more on cleaning up the God awful MTA lol


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## winterinatl (Feb 14, 2019)

They don’t pay taxes here in Seattle. Pisses me off this huge company doesn’t have to pay. That cheats our schools.


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## Rastafarai (Feb 14, 2019)

They should come to Newark. Weren’t they also considering Virginia?


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## OhTall1 (Feb 14, 2019)

Rastafarai said:


> They should come to Newark. Weren’t they also considering Virginia?


They made a decision to split the new offices between NY and VA.  I'm hoping they just decide to bring all of the jobs to VA.


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## nyeredzi (Feb 15, 2019)

I don't want them in our area because I don't like the outcome in cities with these industry giants, like San Francisco and Seattle. At least they're over on the VA side, hopefully it won't impact MD too much. NYC's economy is already diverse, what is Cuomo talking about?

@OhTall1 they can't bring all the jobs here because that's not what's been agreed to in writing. And no VA leaders are talking about changing those numbers


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## Ms. Tarabotti (Feb 15, 2019)

OhTall1 said:


> They made a decision to split the new offices between NY and VA.  I'm hoping they just decide to bring all of the jobs to VA.



VA better make sure that the local community benefits from these jobs. Often these big corporations claim that they can't find 'qualified local workers' so they bring in people from outside the community to fill those jobs. These people swell the local population, drive up the rents and often the infra- structure is inadequate to handle the influx of people. They also promise the moon until they get what they want- then they forget all about what they promised (Amazon originally promised to build two schools to handle the influx of expected students- this got changed to just one school near the end of the deal).

New York City has been through this before with the Barkley Center in downtown Brooklyn. Instead of putting it a location that could handle the transportation issues that arise from thousands of people attending games and concerts, they picked a site that is straining to handle the influx of people. Proposed affordable housing never got built- the developer mysteriously ran out of money at that point. 

Developers will swear that they have done all the necessary environmental impact studies and everything will be fine. NYC's Amazon deal was a back room deal with Coumo and DeBlasio agreeing to who knows what. They by passed the City Council and the local Community boards (I know a lot of Community board members in Queens) and got testy when they were being asked questions (NYC is still a union city while Amazon abhors unions- how would that play out?). They are trying to blame local politicians when Amazon was not clear about how they planned to operate and give back to the city. Amazon is the one that didn't want to work with the local politicians to iron out the major details of this secret agreement.

I would advise that other cities look very carefully at Amazon's track record in other cities to see if this would really benefit them.


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