Amazon wish fulfillment: Prime turf

Virginia, NYC check all the boxes for new HQs

NEW YORK — Amazon, which is growing too big for its Seattle hometown, is spreading out to the East Coast.

The online shopping giant ended its 14-month-long competition for a second headquarters Tuesday by selecting New York and Arlington, Va., as the joint winners. The two cities will each get 25,000 jobs that pay an average of $150,000.

But they’ll pay for it: New York is forking over more than $1.5 billion in tax credits and other incentives, while Arlington is offering about a third of that — $573 million. The communities hope that Amazon will attract other companies and ultimately boost their economies.

Amazon, which started as an online bookstore two decades ago, has grown to a behemoth that had nearly $180 billion in revenue last year. It now owns well-known brands including grocer Whole Foods and online shoe-seller Zappos. It also makes movies and TV shows, runs an advertising business and offers cloud computing services to corporations and government agencies.

The company has more than 610,000 employees worldwide, making it the second largest U.S.-based, publicly-traded employer behind Walmart.

But it was the prospect of 50,000 jobs that led 238 communities across North America to pitch Amazon on why they should be home to the next headquarters.

Amazon could have picked a struggling city desperate for new jobs. But instead it went with two of the nation’s largest and most powerful metro areas. The reason Amazon gave: they are best suited to attract the high-skilled workers the company wants.

New York is the nation’s financial and media powerhouse and has been working to attract technology companies. Google already has more than 7,000 workers in the city and, according to media reports, is looking to add 12,000 more in coming years.

Arlington is directly across the Potomac River from Washington. However, many of its 1980s-era office buildings have vacancies after thousands of federal employees moved elsewhere. Being near the nation’s capital could help Amazon with lobbying efforts as the company faces rising scrutiny from politicians.

Amazon said it will spend $5 billion between both locations on construction and other projects.

The new outposts won’t appear overnight. Amazon said hiring at the two headquarters will start next year, but it could take a decade or more to build out its offices.

Its New York location will be in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, while its Virginia offices will be in a part of Arlington that local politicians and Amazon are calling National Landing, a made-up area around Reagan National Airport that encompasses Crystal City and Potomac Yard.