‘You gotta be kidding me!’ Why Amazon’s threat worries NYC
BILL MONTANA was schmoozing with real estate brokers Thursday at an industry event in New York, talking about the biggest deal in years: Amazon.com Inc.’s decision to build a major campus in Queens.
By the next morning the euphoria had evaporated. Reports the tech giant was reconsidering its plans amid a fierce public backlash sent a jolt through the real estate community that was pinning their hopes on a significant pickup in activity.
“You gotta be kidding me!” Montana, a senior managing director at brokerage Savills Studley, said when reached by phone Friday. “Amazon would be exceedingly foolish to actually pull out of this deal.”
After a highly publicized search for a second headquarters, Amazon in November announced it was splitting the expansion between the New York neighborhood of Long Island City and Northern Virginia’s Crystal City. The company touted upwards of 50,000 jobs that the deal would create, while the real estate industry salivated over prospects for massive office developments.
They didn’t account for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 29-year old freshly elected congresswoman, and other New York politicians who slammed the subsidies the city and state offered. That whipped up a political firestorm that may now be calling the deal into question.
“It would be somewhere between a terrible shame and a devastating loss,” said Michael Cohen, tri-state region president at brokerage Colliers International Group Inc. “It’s not the end of the world, but it’s a self-inflicted wound that will possibly send the signal to others that might have wanted to follow in Amazon’s footsteps.”
Citigroup Inc. said in November it would move about 1,100 employees from its One Court Square building in Long Island City to make room for Amazon. The building’s owner, Savanna, said at the time it had entered into a letter of intent with the tech giant to lease about 1 million square feet. Savanna founder Christopher Schlank declined to comment on Amazon’s reported reconsideration. —