Hogan says he talked to Amazon about HQ2

But e-commerce giant decided not to seek another site after scuttling NYC plan

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Thursday that he has talked with Amazon officials following the company’s decision to back out of building part of its East Coast headquarters in New York City.

Amazon last year selected the New York borough of Queens and Northern Virginia for the two locations where the e-commerce giant would construct two offices with a total of 50,000 employees as part of its HQ2 project.

Maryland — like many other states — scrambled to snare what was being touted as one of the nation’s biggest economic development opportunities. Amazon’s list of finalist locations for HQ2 had included Montgomery County. State lawmakers last year approved an $8.5 billion package — including $6.5 billion in tax incentives and $2 billion in infrastructure and transportation spending — in hopes of luring the internet retail goliath to the state.

Amazon publicly announced Thursday that it was abandoning its plans to build in New York, though reports indicated the decision was in the works a week earlier. The company said it would not look for a replacement location, and would continue to build a headquarters as planned in Northern Virginia as well as a smaller operations facility in Nashville.

Asked whether he would make another run at landing Amazon in Maryland, Hogan said: “We actually have had preliminary discussions with them already and we’re looking forward to meeting with them to discuss it further.”

Hogan didn’t elaborate on when state officials might meet with Amazon.

The developers of the Port Covington project in South Baltimore also renewed their effort to attract Amazon. Baltimore presented Port Covington as an option for the HQ2 project, but the proposal didn’t make Amazon’s list of finalists.

Marc Weller, president of Weller Development Co., the developer of Port Covington, said last week that his team had reached out to Amazon.

“We continue to believe that Baltimore, with its exceptional regional tech-ready workforce and prime campus location of Port Covington, is a perfect fit for Amazon’s needs now, and in the future,” Weller said in a statement last week.

Port Covington is a 260-acre property that’s proposed for a mixed-use redevelopment that will become home to the new headquarters for Under Armour and cybersecurity firms. The Baltimore Sun leases a building at Port Covington for its news, business and printing operations.