Raleigh's HQ2 Hopes Dashed As Amazon Picks NY, Virginia

RALEIGH, NC — North Carolina’s hopes of being part of Amazon’s plan for its second headquarters officially came to an end Tuesday morning. Amazon has decided to split its second headquarters between New York and northern Virginia, the company announced Tuesday.

The decision marks the end of a competitive nationwide search for Amazon's newest home that lasted more than a year and attracted more than 200 bids.

While Raleigh was officially still a possible contender for the company’s new location, the odds were growing slim. In late August, it was ranked as No. 9 in the list of top 10 cities.

The Seattle-based company says it will invest about $2.5 billion and create more than 25,000 high-paying jobs at each of its two new locations in Long Island City in New York and Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C.

(For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)

"These two locations will allow us to attract world-class talent that will help us to continue inventing for customers for years to come," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a news release.
Amazon's plans come amid concerns about overcrowding and strained infrastructure in the exploding neighborhood located just across the East River from Manhattan.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have been eager to draw Amazon to New York, saying the move would provide an economic boost. Cuomo has said the state has an incentive package ready for the company, though its exact contents are unknown.

"We're talking about the single biggest economic development deal in the history of New York City," de Blasio said Monday on NY1. "We're talking about a number of jobs that would make this company the single largest private employer in the city, when it fully plays out."

But Amazon's plans have drawn concerns from several elected officials in Queens skeptical of giving the company big tax breaks to move to a neighborhood some say is bursting at the seams.

Long Island City has seen a recent development boom, with about 3,000 units completed in the first half of this year and 3,300 more expected to hit the market by 2020, according to the data analysis website Localize.city.

More growth is likely on the way, as the de Blasio administration recently unveiled an investment strategy for the neighborhood that involves $180 million in new city funding.

Concerned officials have questioned whether it's wise to let a corporation as massive as Amazon put further stress on the area's infrastructure and resources while benefitting from huge tax breaks.

"The burden should not be on the 99 percent to prove we are worthy of the 1 percent's presence in our communities, but rather on Amazon to prove it would be a responsible corporate neighbor," City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer and state Sen. Michael Gianaris, who represent Long Island City, said in a joint statement posted to Twitter on Sunday.

U.S. Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who will soon represent part of Queens, said residents of the borough have reacted to Amazon's plans with "outrage."

The idea that Amazon "will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here," Ocasio-Cortez said in a series of Twitter posts on Monday.

Cuomo's administration plans to use a state-led planning process to rezone a 20-acre site in Long Island City for Amazon's eventual use without City Council approval, a prospect that angered local Van Bramer, Crains New York Business reported Friday.

Van Bramer is set to host a rally against Amazon's move to the neighborhood on Wednesday along with state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) and activist groups.

Original story by Patch Editor Noah Manskar

(Lead image: Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)