What New York City promised Amazon for HQ2

Long Island City is going
to be home to one of Amazon’s next
headquarters.
The City of New
York

• Amazon
  has finally
  announced the winners of its second headquarters project,
  HQ2,
  which will be split between two locations: Long Island City in
  Queens, New York, and the National Landing area of Arlington,
  Virginia.
• Amazon
  said it will invest $5 billion and create more than 50,000 jobs
  between the two locations.
• New York City laid out the terms for its new neighbor
  in a document that was published online on
  Tuesday.

The battle for HQ2 is finally over.

On Tuesday, in a blog post, Amazon named the two winners of
its HQ2 project: Long Island City in Queens, New York, and the

newly formed National Landing area of Arlington, Virginia.

The much-anticipated news comes after a year-long search that
started with 238 proposals that were
whittled down to a short list of 20 sites at the beginning of
the year. 

Read more: 

Amazon officially announces its HQ2 will be split between New
York and Virginia

Amazon had initially said it planned to invest over $5
billion and accommodate as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs with
its new HQ2. As a result, cities and states leaped at the chance

to win over the e-commerce giant, putting together proposals
for suitable sites and even offering tax incentives to sweeten
the deal.  

New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo even said he’d change his name
to
Amazon Cuomo to woo the company. 

On Tuesday, both Cuomo and New York City’s Mayor Bill de
Blasio praised Amazon’s decision to pick New York.

“New York City is about to get tens of thousands of new,
good paying jobs and Amazon is about to meet the most talented
work force in the world in one of the most diverse places on the
planet. Welcome to Queens, #HQ2,” de Blasio wrote on Twitter. 

“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 … New York can proudly say that we have
attracted one of the largest, most competitive economic
development investments in U.S. history,” Cuomo said in a
statement to the press. 

The exact terms of New York’s deal with Amazon had been laid out
in a series of documents, signed by The City of New York, two
city organizations, and a representative of Amazon. These
documents were published online on
Tuesday.

Here are the biggest takeaways:

Where will the new headquarters be?

• The new headquarters will be located close to the waterfront
  in Long Island City, between 46th Avenue and 44th Road. 
• The new offices will occupy four million square feet of
  space, with the opportunity to expand to eight million square
  feet in the future. 
• The offices will be housed in a mix of private and public
  buildings including the office of the Department of Education,
  which will be relocated from Vernon Boulevard. 
• Once the city has agreed to Amazon’s design proposals,
  construction will begin within 12 months.
• Amazon has agreed to donate space on its campus for a
  tech startup incubator and for use by artists and industrial
  businesses. It has also agreed to donate a site for a new
  primary or intermediary public school.
• The company will also invest in infrastructure
  improvements and new green spaces.

Shutterstock

How many employees will Amazon hire?

• Amazon will hire 25,000 people within the next 10 years. It
  said that these employees would have an average annual wage of
  $150,000. The hiring kicks off with 700 people, who will join the
  new offices in 2019. 
• If Amazon grows the headquarters in the future, around 40,000
  people could be hired in total. 

How much will Amazon invest in the local
community?

• In total, Amazon will invest nearly $3.7 billion over the
  next 15 years. 
• This includes a $5 million investment in funding workforce
  development initiatives, including technology training programs
  and internships for local students. 

What tax incentives will Amazon receive?

• If Amazon keeps up to its end of the bargain by creating
  25,000 jobs, it is eligible to receive direct incentives of
  $1.525 billion. These are rebates on tax paid on employees
  salaries and reimbursements for building the new offices. 

The extras

AP/Frank Franklin II

Read more about Amazon’s HQ2: