QUEENS RANSOM

Amazon gets $2.5B tax break — and right to a helipad — to move to NYC

Amazon has promised to hire 25,000 people — in exchange for a generous tax break — at a new facility in Long Island City, Queens.

Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio on Tuesday rolled out the green carpet for Amazon — while claiming that $2.5 billion in taxpayer subsidies to lure the e-commerce juggernaut here won’t actually cost New Yorkers a cent.

“This is a big money-maker for us — costs us nothing, nada, niente,” Cuomo declared during a rare joint press conference with Hizzoner. “We make money doing this.”

The online retail giant chose Long Island City — along with Arlington, Va. — for the HQ2 and said it plans to deliver the Big Apple 25,000 permanent jobs with an average $150,000 salary, along with an East River waterfront office complex totalling up to 8 million square feet.

The state enticed Amazon with $1.525 billion in tax credits and construction grants, while the city is giving $1.28 billion in tax breaks, officials said.

The state’s Excelsior Jobs Program will make up most of its gift to Amazon.

The company will receive “performance-based direct incentives” of $1.2 billion from the program if it creates all of the 25,000 jobs it promised by 2028, according to an agreement signed by the city, state and Amazon.

Separately, Cuomo and Co. are offering Amazon a $325 million construction grant if it meets certain hiring deadlines.

That figure can climb to $505 million if Amazon ratchets hiring up to 40,000 by 2034, according to the agreement.

Currently Amazon employs just 4,747 people statewide, but “new positions may not be filled by transferring employees from other New York State locations,” the agreement notes.

And the city is kicking in $897 million in Relocation and Employment Assistance Program funds — which provides $3,000 a year in tax breaks per employee for companies that move to the Big Apple.

It has also offered $386 million in 15-year tax abatements under its Industrial & Commercial Abatement Program, which rewards new construction and building rehabilitation.

City and state deal makers couldn’t get Amazon to commit to making any improvements to the area’s crumbling sewers or packed-to-the-gills subways.

Some of the property taxes collected on the land will go into an “Infrastructure Fund” that’s supposed to be dedicated to shoring up area streets, sidewalks, transportation and open spaces. But there’s a catch. The city won’t begin collecting property taxes until 11 years into the 15-year abatement, meaning the Infrastructure Fund will go unfunded for more than a decade.

Mayoral spokesman Wiley Norvell defended the funding delay, arguing there are already $2 billion in infrastructure projects underway in Long Island City.

“This isn’t the first and it won’t be the last big investment in Long Island City infrastructure,” he said.

Amazon has also agreed to build a workforce development space and spend $5 million on workshops about things such as resume-writing and computer literacy; create two public parks totalling 3.4 acres; build a public elementary or middle school; and provide a “tech incubator” space to help new start-ups.

As an additional boon to Amazon, the state is circumventing city zoning requirements and the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure — meaning the cam- pus’ size could vastly exceed limitations normally placed by city zoning law.

That troubled Comptroller Scott Stringer, who said any planned construction should be subject to ULURP.

“I welcome the potential that economic development can bring to our City,” Stringer said in a statement.

“But before a shovel hits the ground or a lease is signed, Amazon, the City, and the State must engage in a community based planning process and make a commitment to connect local residents with good paying jobs.”

Amazon has not released renderings of the proposed campus and is expected to submit its specific site plans at a later date, the agreement notes. The site includes three lots owned by the city which will be leased to Ama- zon for 99 years at $850,000 a year. Amazon bought three more lots for an undisclosed sum from private owner Plaxall.

The deal comes after the city and state spent the last year courting Amazon.

“Your team bargains hard and your team was extremely thoughtful, creative, professional,” de Blasio gushed to Amazon’s vice president of real estate, John Schoettler, during the press conference.

New York politicians at all levels of government have questioned the wisdom of such a deal — including Queens Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, state Sen. Michael Gianaris and US Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Pressed by reporters on why any money was needed to bring Amazon to the nation’s undisputed economic and cultural epicenter, Cuomo griped that the massive giveaways are necessary, because Amazon could have gone to states with no income taxes.

“It’s not a level playing field to begin with,” he said.

Cuomo promised that the city and state will reap a collective $27.5 billion in taxes from Amazon over the next two decades — with $14 billion going to the state and $13.5 billion to the city. He noted the figure would be a 9-to-1 return on investment.

“That is the highest rate of return for an economic incentive program that the state has ever offered,” he said.

“To give you an idea, the film tax-credit program, which is one of our main economic development programs, is — we invest a dollar, we get back $1.15.”

The city, state and Amazon are expected to sign a contract next year.