Amazon to bring 25,000 jobs each to NY, Virginia
After 14 months, pair of front-runners chosen
ARLINGTON, Va. – Amazon has made a more prosaic choice than the hype originally promised, naming New York City and the Washington, D.C., suburb of Arlington, Virginia, as the two areas that will divvy up the 50,000 high-paying jobs the online retail giant is expected to bring.
The announcement Tuesday comes after 14 months of jockeying by more than 230 cities vying to host Amazon’s second headquarters.
Instead, Amazon chose two areas that have long been considered frontrunners, even among the 20 finalists announced on Jan. 18.
While Amazon’s request for proposals listed multiple requirements, the reason for the exercise was to aid the Seattle-based company in hiring the best and the brightest talent – even as other tech companies are pushing to hire those same workers.
New York City and the greater D.C. area both fit that bill well said Jeffrey Shulman, a professor at the University of Washington’s school of business.
“Both of those cities are attractive places to live where they have both a talent pool and the cultural amenities that make someone willing to uproot their lives and move there,” he said.
The Washington, D.C., metro area emerged as a favorite to land Amazon’s second U.S. headquarters when it scored three spots among the 20 finalists: Montgomery County, Maryland; Northern Virginia (Loudoun and Fairfax counties); and Washington itself.
That resulted in nine proposed building sites within a 28-mile radius of the U.S. Capitol.
As the seat of the nation’s government, Washington stands out. The area’s public transportation system and its white-collar, well-educated workforce are strengths.
Still, Northern Virginia stood out in the region for its tech-centric surroundings. The region has countless data centers where tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Salesforce connect.
Arlington and the city of Alexandria, after working together, said Amazon would locate in National Landing, a newly branded neighborhood encompassing parts of Pentagon City and Crystal City in Arlington and Potomac Yard in Alexandria.
Probably highest on Amazon’s list of must-haves is access to tech and other talent. The New York metro area has close to 1.3 million workers in management, business, finance, math, public relations and sales.
While housing in New York City is tight, the area Amazon is reportedly homing in on is Long Island City at the western edge of Queens, which has been on an apartment-building spree.
Amazon also announced it is investing $230 million in Nashville, Tennessee, and adding 5,000 jobs at a new operations site.
The new Amazon site will be located at Nashville Yards, located downtown. The new site will be responsible for customer fulfillment, transportation, supply chain and similar activities.
Contributing: Dalvin Brown in New York City for USA TODAY; Jamie McGee at the Nashville Tennessean.
Elizabeth Weise and Mike Snider