Tech giant Amazon says it will no longer locate its new corporate offices in New York’s Long Island City, according to a statement obtained by the New York Times on Thursday. Still, the Seattle-based company notes that it will “proceed as planned in Northern Virginia,” where it has offered to create 25,000 new jobs—through the next decade—in and around Crystal City.
“We do not intend to re-open the HQ2 search at this time,” Amazon’s statement reads. “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.” Last November, when announcing its much-ballyhooed decision for new corporate sites, the company said it would bring 5,000 jobs to the Tennessee city. New York was set to gain 25,000 Amazon jobs.
While speculation about what the company’s Valentine’s Day announcement could mean for Crystal City (and the D.C. region) was picking up steam on Twitter early Thursday afternoon, there was no immediate or clear indication that Amazon would move the jobs it had planned for New York to Northern Virginia or anywhere else. In its agreement with Virginia, however, Amazon does project creating as many as 37,850 “cumulative new jobs” into the 2030s, over two phases. State bigwigs recently OK’d up to $750 million in public incentives for Amazon.
Arlington County lawmakers are still poised to consider a smaller incentives package for the company, worth $23 million over 15 years, in March. In a statement, Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey said Northern Virginia leaders had discussed the turn of events with “an Amazon representative...[and] have confirmed that we are moving forward as planned with Amazon’s upcoming headquarters in Arlington.” “Nothing has changed,” Dorsey said.
In preparation for the company’s arrival in “National Landing,” as officials are branding the parts of Northern Virginia around the Crystal City location, local real estate brokerages and developers are strategically marketing and planning homes for would-be Amazon employees. The company has previously indicated it would hire about 400 people in Crystal City in 2019.
This post has been updated with comment from Dorsey.