Amazon is officially abandoning plans to build their new headquarters in New York. The company had planned to split its second headquarters, dubbed “HQ2,” between New York and Northern Virginia. However, on Thursday, Amazon said it wouldn’t be looking for an alternative location for the now-abandoned New York campus.
In a press release/statement, Amazon said: “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. We do not intend to reopen the HQ2 search at this time. We will proceed as planned in Northern Virginia and Nashville, and we will continue to hire and grow across our 17 corporate offices and tech hubs in the U.S. and Canada.”
Amazon also said that it wasn’t going to give up on New York altogether: “There are currently over 5,000 Amazon employees in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Staten Island, and we plan to continue growing these teams.”
Amazon’s primary headquarters has been in Seattle ever since the company was founded in 1994. The company had called for a public application process to build its second headquarter, and got over 200 cities to participate, with many offering lucrative tax incentives to attract the e-commerce giant.
The company announced a decision to split HQ2 between Northern Virginia and New York in November, and at the time suggested that it would create as many as 25,000 jobs in each location.
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