By Jamie Barrie A fter many months of search for a location for its second headquarters and many cities wanting in on the opportunity the winning city has decided that Amazon is not welcome in the Big Apple as the company announced that because of opposition from local politicians and community activists that it has cancelled its plans to build its second headquarters in New York City. “After much thought and deliberation, we’ve decided not to move forward with our plans to build a headquarters for Amazon in Long Island City, Queens,” spokesperson Jodi Seth said. “For Amazon, the commitment to build a new head- quarters requires positive, collaborative relation- ships with state and local elected officials who will be supportive over the long-term.” In November, after a year-long process that saw hundreds of cities pitch the company on becoming the site of so-called HQ2, Amazon announced New York would be the home of their
second headquarters and that they would build a huge complex in Queens which would employ more than 25,000 people. While Amazon trumpeted opinion polls that suggest 70 per cent of New Yorkers support the project, the company’s statement says a number of state and local politicians have made it clear they oppose Amazon’s presence and will not work with the company to “build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project.” Amazon has said that there are no plans to have another search for a second headquarters. The company’s existing New York-based operations in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island, which employ 5,000 people, will not be impacted. Amazon has also said that rather than looking for a new second headquarters at this time that they will continue to invest and hire in their 17 current corpo- rate offices and tech hubs in the U.S. and Canada.
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2019
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