LIC YA SOON!
Amazon set to announce Queens move
Long Island City, Queens, will be one of two sites for Amazon’s new corporate headquarters, the Daily News confirmed Monday.
An announcement is expected on Tuesday, The News’ source said.
Long Island City will share the new Amazon headquarters with Arlington, Va., across the Potomac from Washington, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Amazon began looking in September 2017 for a site for a second headquarters.
At the time, the company said a single new location would employ about 50,000 people. Since Amazon now plans to build two new headquarters, it’s not clear how many of the jobs will end up in Queens.
Other cities besides New York and Arlington may also receive major Amazon sites, the Journal reported.
Mayor de Blasio said last week that a new Amazon headquarters would put pressure on the city’s infrastructure and transportation facilities — “but we are up for the job.”
Amazon so far has been tight-lipped about its headquarter plans.
A likely location for its Long Island City project is the Anable basin, on the East River between the Midtown Tunnel and the Queensboro Bridge, across from the southern tip of Roosevelt Island.
The Amazon project could be part of a sprawling redevelopment of the area that would take up city-owned land as well as what’s known as the Plaxall site, named after the family that has owned it for decades, Politico New York reported last week.
Gov. Cuomo has said he has offered Amazon “hundreds of millions of dollars” in taxpayer money to pursue the project.
His administration plans to use state law to allow Amazon to sidestep the city’s zoning process, Crain’s New York Business reported. Similar procedures were used for the Atlantic Yards and Brooklyn Bridge Park projects.
De Blasio has spoken against the idea of taxpayer subsidies for the Amazon project — but he has also said it would be a “huge boost for the city.”
“There will be development pressures to navigate, but they can be navigated,” the mayor said last week.