Amazon is coming to New York City after all, without the promise of $1 billion in tax breaks.
However, the 1,500 jobs the tech behemoth is bringing to the city that never sleeps is far fewer than the 25,000 that were slated to come as part of the company’s HQ2 search.
According to media reports, Amazon signed a lease for a new 335,000-square-foot office in Hudson Yards, a project entirely different than last year’s HQ2 plans that called for the company’s second headquarters to be split between New York and a neighborhood just outside of Washington, D.C.
Well over 200 municipalities submitted bids as part of an RFP process that lasted more than a year.
The company came under fire from New York-area politicians and residents for the reported $1.5 billion in tax incentives it was due to receive if it moved half of its headquarters to the city. One of the loudest critics of that deal was Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In February, Amazon said New York City was no longer in its HQ2 plans.
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Ocasio-Cortez and other critics have said Amazon, which took in more than $10 billion in net profit on $232.9 billion in sales last year, doesn’t need a single public subsidy for its real estate projects.
The company already has 18 “Tech Hubs” across North America and is continuously expanding those, and even opening a new Robotics Innovation Hub in Massachusetts.
For developers and enterprise, the leading cloud services provider continuing to expand — especially without your tax dollars going to one of the most profitable companies in history —is generally good for the many businesses that use their services.
Amazon Web Services continues to innovate and release new products, made evident by the flurry of announcements it made at re:Invent last week.
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