Amazon has selected New York City and Arlington, Virginia for its new headquarters. Amazon is going to invest $5 billion to create more than 50,000 jobs across the two new headquarters locations. And more than 25,000 employees will be hired each in New York City and Arlington. These new locations will join Seattle as Amazon’s three headquarters in North America.
The new Washington, D.C. metro headquarters in Arlington, Virginia will be located in National Landing. And the New York City headquarters will be located in the Long Island City neighborhood in Queens. And Amazon will start hiring at both new headquarters in 2019.
And Amazon also announced that it selected Nashville for a new Center of Excellence for its Operations business, which is where plans for the company’s customer fulfillment, transportation, supply chain, and similar activities will be developed. Amazon’s Operations Center of Excellence in Nashville is expected to create over 5,000 jobs. The Operations Center of Excellence will be located in downtown Nashville north of the Gulch. Hiring at the Operations Center of Excellence will start in 2019.
“We are excited to build new headquarters in New York City and Northern Virginia,” said Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. “These two locations will allow us to attract world-class talent that will help us to continue inventing for customers for years to come. The team did a great job selecting these sites, and we look forward to becoming an even bigger part of these communities.”
Amazon Headquarters In Long Island
Amazon is going to receive performance-based direct incentives of $1.525 billion based on the company creating 25,000 jobs in Long Island City. This includes a refundable tax credit through New York State’s Excelsior Program of up to $1.2 billion calculated as a percentage of the salaries that Amazon is expecting to pay employees over the next ten years, which equates to $48,000 per job for 25,000 jobs with an average wage of more than $150,000 and a cash grant from Empire State Development of $325 million based on square footage of buildings occupied over the next ten years.
And Amazon will receive these incentives over the next ten years based on the incremental jobs it creates every year as it reaches building occupancy targets.
Part of the space on the campus will be set up as a tech startup incubator and for use by artists and industrial spaces. And Amazon is going to donate a site for a new primary or intermediary public school.
“When I took office, I said we would build a new New York State – one that is fiscally responsible and fosters a business climate that is attractive to growing companies and the industries of tomorrow. We’ve delivered on those promises and more, and today, with Amazon committing to expand its headquarters in Long Island City, New York can proudly say that we have attracted one of the largest, most competitive economic development investments in U.S. history,” added Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York in a statement. “With an average salary of $150,000 per year for the tens of thousands of new jobs Amazon is creating in Queens, economic opportunity and investment will flourish for the entire region. Amazon understands that New York has everything the company needs to continue its growth. The State’s more than $100 billion transportation infrastructure program – the most ambitious in our history – combined with our education initiatives like K-12 tech education and the first-in-the-nation Excelsior Scholarship program, will help ensure long-term success and an unrivaled talent pool for Amazon.”
New York is known for being a financial, advertising, and film hub. As Amazon’s ad business is rapidly growing, the proximity to advertising decision-makers will be important for the company as it takes on Google and Facebook in those areas. Plus Amazon has been investing heavily in its Video business to drive Prime subscriptions so it could potentially set up a film studio there.
Amazon Headquarters In Arlington, Virginia
Amazon’s headquarters in Northern Virginia will be located less than 3 miles from downtown Washington, D.C. And Amazon will receive performance-based direct incentives of $573 million based on the company creating 25,000 jobs with an average wage of more than $150,000 in Arlington. This includes a workforce cash grant from the Commonwealth of Virginia of up to $550,000 million based on $22,000 for each job created in the next twelve years.
This incentive will only be received if Amazon creates the forecasted high-paying jobs. And Amazon will only receive a cash grant from Arlington of $23 million over fifteen years based on the incremental growth of the existing local Transient Occupancy Tax, which is a tax on hotel rooms.
“This is a big win for Virginia – I’m proud Amazon recognizes the tremendous assets the Commonwealth has to offer and plans to deepen its roots here,” explained Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia. “Virginia put together a proposal for Amazon that we believe represents a new model of economic development for the 21st century, and I’m excited to say that our innovative approach was successful. The majority of Virginia’s partnership proposal consists of investments in our education and transportation infrastructure that will bolster the features that make Virginia so attractive: a strong and talented workforce, a stable and competitive business climate, and a world-class higher education system.”
The Arlington community and Amazon employees will benefit from the state investing $195 million in infrastructure in the neighborhood such as improvements to the Crystal City and the Potomac Yards Metro stations and a pedestrian bridge connecting National Landing and Reagan National Airport. Plus Arlington is dedicating about $28 million based on 12% on future property tax revenues earned from an existing Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district for on-site infrastructure and open space in National Landing.
This location could help Amazon drive its business for government-related projects. It’s also worth mentioning that Washington, D.C. is the location of The Washington Post — which is the newspaper company owned by Bezos.
Operations Center Of Excellence In Nashville
Amazon is planning on investing $230 million to hire 5,000 full-time high-paying jobs and to set up its 1 million square foot facility in Nashville. And the company will see an estimated incremental tax revenue of more than $1 billion over the next ten years as a result of the company’s investment and job creation.
And Amazon is going to receive performance-based direct incentives of up to $102 million based on the company creating 5,000 jobs with an average salary of more than $150,000 in Nashville. This includes a cash grant for capital expenditures from the state of Tennessee of $65 million for creating the 5,000 jobs over the next 7 years, which is the equivalent of $13,000 per job. And it includes a cash grant from the city of Nashville of up to $15 million based on $500 for each job created over the next seven years.
“We want to thank Amazon for its continued investment in the state of Tennessee and are excited about the additional 5,000 corporate jobs they will be creating in Nashville,” commented Governor Bill Haslam of Tennessee. “It has never been clearer that Tennessee is a great place to do business, and we continue to attract a wide variety of global companies that provide high-paying, quality jobs for our residents.”
