Amazon picks New York and Northern Virginia for its new headquarters after year-long search

[JacksinPA]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/13/tech/amazon-hq2-nyc-arlington/index.html

New York (CNN Business)After running a year-long competition that drew interest from hundreds of cities and a number of states, Amazon has chosen New York City and Northern Virginia to split duty as its second headquarters.

On Tuesday, Amazon announced it has chosen New York's Long Island City and Virginia's Arlington for HQ2. Both locations will receive a $2.5 billion investment from Amazon, and each will have more than 25,000 workers over time. Hiring begins next year.
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Surprising outcome in some regards. Long Island City, the site for the NYC investment, is very crowded & congested, as is Arlington. A major problem: housing for all the new workers in a ballooning real estate market.

As a side note, Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, has a large home in the northern Virginia area.

 

[jonny5]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/13/tech/amazon-hq2-nyc-arlington/index.html

New York (CNN Business)After running a year-long competition that drew interest from hundreds of cities and a number of states, Amazon has chosen New York City and Northern Virginia to split duty as its second headquarters.

On Tuesday, Amazon announced it has chosen New York's Long Island City and Virginia's Arlington for HQ2. Both locations will receive a $2.5 billion investment from Amazon, and each will have more than 25,000 workers over time. Hiring begins next year.
==========================================
Surprising outcome in some regards. Long Island City, the site for the NYC investment, is very crowded & congested, as is Arlington. A major problem: housing for all the new workers in a ballooning real estate market.

As a side note, Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, has a large home in the northern Virginia area.

Not that surprising. Both of those regions are heavily subsidized by govt. Northern Virginia (ie. DC) is one of the most concentrated areas of govt bureaucrats and corporate lobbyists

 

[Mithros]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/13/tech/amazon-hq2-nyc-arlington/index.html

New York (CNN Business)After running a year-long competition that drew interest from hundreds of cities and a number of states, Amazon has chosen New York City and Northern Virginia to split duty as its second headquarters.

On Tuesday, Amazon announced it has chosen New York's Long Island City and Virginia's Arlington for HQ2. Both locations will receive a $2.5 billion investment from Amazon, and each will have more than 25,000 workers over time. Hiring begins next year.
==========================================
Surprising outcome in some regards. Long Island City, the site for the NYC investment, is very crowded & congested, as is Arlington. A major problem: housing for all the new workers in a ballooning real estate market.

As a side note, Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, has a large home in the northern Virginia area.

It's great for Amazon, but sucks for New York and northern Virginia.

So many cities bent overbackwards to see who could give one of the biggest companies in the world the most corporate welfare. And when it's all said and done, Amazon just went where they were likely to go anyway. Except now they have to subsidize Amazon. It should be illegal for local governments to give special treatment to specific companies. Everyone should get the same fair shake.

 

[Ahlevah]

Virginia I can see, but New York? :doh This makes no financial sense whatsoever, unless Amazon is trying to avoid legal scrutiny from New York, e.g. to placate the New York attorney general. The cost of living in New York City is ridiculous, and New York Democrats have to be salivating over the tens of billions of dollars worth of Amazon-generated tax revenues they'll now be able to piss away. Dallas would have made more sense, and Texas is certainly more business friendly. Finally, I'm reminded of Peter Lynch's Investing Principle #7:

The extravagance of any corporate office is directly proportional to management's reluctance to reward shareholders.

No doubt, up to now Amazon has richly rewarded shareholders and generates revenues larger than the GDPs of many nations. But a wise man once said that trees don't grow to the sky.

 

[AliHajiSheik]

It's great for Amazon, but sucks for New York and northern Virginia.

So many cities bent overbackwards to see who could give one of the biggest companies in the world the most corporate welfare. And when it's all said and done, Amazon just went where they were likely to go anyway. Except now they have to subsidize Amazon. It should be illegal for local governments to give special treatment to specific companies. Everyone should get the same fair shake.

Who exactly would make this illegal?

 

[Mithros]

Who exactly would make this illegal?

I haven't given that a ton of thought.
Obviously it would have to be Federal. I think an amendment to Clayton similar to Robinson-Patman would work. Something along the lines that US governments at any level can enact provisions which advantage one class of businesses over another, but not individual businesses within that class. ie.. you can give a tax reduction to all e commerce companies, but not solely to amazon.

 

[AliHajiSheik]

I haven't given that a ton of thought.
Obviously it would have to be Federal. I think an amendment to Clayton similar to Robinson-Patman would work. Something along the lines that US governments at any level can enact provisions which advantage one class of businesses over another, but not individual businesses within that class. ie.. you can give a tax reduction to all e commerce companies, but not solely to amazon.

Thanks for some details to consider. I'll take a look.

 

[Neomalthusian]

It's great for Amazon, but sucks for New York and northern Virginia.

So many cities bent overbackwards to see who could give one of the biggest companies in the world the most corporate welfare. And when it's all said and done, Amazon just went where they were likely to go anyway. Except now they have to subsidize Amazon. It should be illegal for local governments to give special treatment to specific companies.

What about when the special treatment is used as a pass-through to unions, which are the special interest group to which De Blasio and Cuomo are beholden? Is that really "corporate" welfare, at the end of the day, or should we call "union welfare?"

Why Is New York Paying Amazon More Than Virginia? -- You’ll find the answer in who’s doing the construction.