It’s official: Amazon chooses 2 office sites

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

The online shopping giant ended its 14-monthlong 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 $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 grocer Whole Foods and online shoe-seller Zappos; 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, publiclytraded 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 highskilled workers the company wants.

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.

Amazon also said that Nashville will be home to a new development that will create 5,000 jobs, focusing on customer delivery.