Wouldn't you call two new offices that are smaller than the headquarters "satellite offices"?<p>It really does feel like Amazon successfully played a lot of municipalities against each other to try and extract the biggest concessions, knowing all along that it didn't make sense to try and hire 50000 people in a decade in any one location.<p>I know that's how the game is played, but it's still feels a little disingenuous.
Why do we give Amazon subsidies but not small businesses, who altogether provide over 50% of the jobs in America? The reason, as I understand it, is because Amazon as a single corporate entity provides far more jobs and holds more power.<p>Following that: Wouldn't the small businesses, due to our anti-trust regulations, actually be considered a cartel if they tried to negotiate as a group and gain the same tax advantages that Amazon has?<p>So, with that in mind, don't we have some very arbitrary laws? If I could buy up a few small businesses and negotiate with them as pawns, but without a common owner, it's anti-trust behavior?<p>Maybe I'm misunderstanding this; IANAL, but would love to hear someone's opinion. Though game theory would likely prevent their continued cooperation, it seems quite unfair for small businesses that are unable, even in theory, to collectively negotiate on the same scale as Amazon.
As a New Yorker, I am super disappointed that they chose Long Island City. There were contenders where this stimulus could have been a paradigm shift. Instead, it's just a drop in the bucket for a city that is already growing recklessly.<p>My vote was for Newark, personally. Plenty of office space; access to NJIT, Rutgers, and Princeton; and good public transit that connects directly into NYC. Bezos and co. could have done some real good, but instead they will just be contributing to New York's biggest gripes (unsustainable subways, housing shortages, and an aggregation of labor into a few metropolitan areas).
Newly elected Democrats in the NY state legislature might block the NYC Amazon subsidies and put the funds into student debt relief instead: <a href="https://capitalandmain.com/will-new-york-fund-amazon-subsidies-or-student-debt-relief-1113" rel="nofollow">https://capitalandmain.com/will-new-york-fund-amazon-subsidi...</a>
Tax kickbacks of $48k/job in NY and $22k/job in VA wth average salary of $150k/yr. Also $325mil in NY and $23mil in VA for just occupying the space. All well below the projected billions in direct investment and tax amounts.<p>Not sure whether worth it or not, but it's all around economic growth which I see as a good thing in general. We can argue about public funds and growing pains, but this problem is better than the opposite problem. If you are in the area and oppose along with the majority of your peers, say so at the polls. But I wouldn't be surprised to find that, outside of pro-tax/anti-big-corp circles, this is gleefully welcomed.
Unless I'm misreading this, it looks like Nashville got the best deal<p>> Amazon will receive performance-based direct incentives of up to $102 million based on the company creating 5,000 jobs with an average wage of over $150,000 in Nashville.<p>This is a pretty big deal for Nashville, and costing them only $12,000 per job is a pretty big win.
As usual, the Onion nails it...<p><i>New York City Announces Subway Just For Amazon Employees Now</i><p><a href="https://www.theonion.com/new-york-city-announces-subway-just-for-amazon-employee-1830418104" rel="nofollow">https://www.theonion.com/new-york-city-announces-subway-just...</a>
Let the real estate speculation begin!!<p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazons-move-to-long-island-city-sparks-condo-frenzy-1542116117" rel="nofollow">https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazons-move-to-long-island-cit...</a>
Interesting to see the Virginia state ("commonwealth") "incentives". At the state level, the original VA pitch was out near Dulles (the currently state-owned CIT land). Pitches for Arlington et al. were done by the county as far as I know. Presumably once Amazon zeroed in on the Arlington area the state was willing to go along.<p>(Apple has supposedly been in talks with the state about the CIT land as well, just in a less public fashion than Amazon, so I assume something is still going to go in there soon, whether Apple or something else.)
Can't believe how many subsidies they got, to me it's a question of fairness, why should we subsidize them, but not others? I get that they are doing the community a service by creating high paying jobs, but there certainly have been negative sides to what they've done (gentrification, poor working conditions for many employees in their warehouses).
I still don't understand why NYC gave up so much by way of incentives and subsidies. With things the way they are, seemingly Amazon needed NYC, way more than NYC needed amazon.
Both cities should pull their subsidy packages. Amazon negotiated in bad faith, under false pretenses. The conditions under which any subsidies were offered no longer apply.
The easiest way to think about these HQs for me:<p>- Seattle - retail, logistics<p>- Crystal City - AWS<p>- New York City - Amazon services for advertising, publishing, media<p>I would bet Seattle sees those roles slowly pull towards their respective HQs. It's already happening with advertising and NYC as far as I can tell from their job listings.<p>And if in the future, for some reason, Amazon is required to break up, this would make it a little less messy.
I grew up in QUEENS. Well LIC is a melting pot. The amazon workers can live in sunnyside queens or greenpoint brooklyn. I think with AMAZON coming to LIC that whole area is gonna light up. Also lets not forget Roosevelt Island is right there. You'll see new development in Roosvelt island. Buildings have been going up in LIC for the last 10 years. You have Jackson Hights. Sunnyside, greenpoint, also the boogie down bronx has places to live,. so the transit system is gonna be PACKED. the train is always late in NYC / Queens. LIRR will also see increased traffic from Jamaica to hunters point or woodside. You can get LIRR from Forrest hills or key Gardens. This will allow for new eating places to open and other small business will pop up to meet the needs of the 25k people they plan to hire. I will be looking for business opportunities my self! :-)
Why didn’t anyone ask the residents if they wanted a megacorporation to move into their neighborhoods? Amazon insisted on absolute secrecy moving forward and elected officials went right along with it.<p>Queens residents are outraged by this news. No one asked them. How is this democracy at work?
Is there really any good reason to hate Amazon for this? It sounds like they gave an offer, and the offer was good, so people wanted it. I like freedom. This sounds like freedom. Is it not?
> Hiring at both the new headquarters will begin in 2019.<p>Do they have buildings leased? I presumed they were going to build. How can they start hiring already?
Since each city is only receiving half the benefit they thought they were bidding on, presumably they’ll each get to cut their bids in half — the subsidies, tax abatements, infrastructure spending promises, etc.? But I haven’t seen any notice of this in the news coverage. [rerun]
This entire competition was an obvious sham to try to equivocate really desperate cities willing to give basically anything to have a major tech company headquarters, to the inevitable choice amazon was going to make of california or the coastal northeast, so they could extract maximum concessions.<p>Its disgusting this worked as well as it did, $48k/job in tax concessions from NYC and $22k/job from VA, expect to see a lot more of this in the future. Hopefully governments wake up and realize its a race to the bottom that advantages megacorps to such a point that having them is barely worth it, while at the same time hurting local businesses.<p>EDIT: the tax deductions are one time, not per year, i mixed that up.
I haven't read anyone citing Google also setting up shop in NYC. This might be way off but could Amazon and Google be competing for political influence in NYC?
> Long Island City is a mixed-use community where arts and industry intersect<p>It's mostly empty warehouses, housing projects, and luxury condos. There's very little in terms of culture or even basic needs, like grocery stores.<p>> Long Island City has some of the best transit access in New York City, with 8 subway lines, 13 bus lines, commuter rail, a bike-sharing service, and ferries serving the area<p>Realistically it's the densely overcrowded 7 train, getting worse each year, with no relief in sight. Once the L shuts down in 2019 the G will be absolutely overrun.<p>> and LaGuardia and JFK airports are in close proximity<p>Getting to LGA involves taking a train to a bus, by car it's a breeze, JFK is an hour away by train.