BostInno
Bye, Boston HQ2: Amazon Ends Its Year-Long Search by Picking NYC and Arlington, Virginia
By: Lucia Maffel
It’s been fun while it lasted—The thought that Boston might actually have a chance to host Amazon’s second headquarters.
That thought was shattered on Tuesday morning, when the Seattle tech giant announced it had closed its year-long search by choosing New York City and Arlington, Virginia, as the locations for the company’s HQ2.
The company said that HQ2 will bring a combined $5 billion in construction investments across the two new headquarters locations, which will be located in National Landing (less than 3 miles from downtown Washington, D.C.) and in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens. Each site will create more than 25,000 jobs, with hiring slated to start in 2019.
“We are excited to build new headquarters in New York City and Northern Virginia,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, in a statement. “These two locations will allow us to attract world-class talent that will help us to continue inventing for customers for years to come. The team did a great job selecting these sites, and we look forward to becoming an even bigger part of these communities.”
In addition to the final picks for HQ2, Amazon revealed it also selected Nashville, Tennessee, for a new center of excellence for its operations business. The facility, which Amazon said will create more than 5,000 jobs, will be responsible for the company’s customer fulfillment, transportation and supply chain.
Even if Boston didn’t end up getting HQ2 or any consolation prize, the thing to remember is that the company already has a strong presence in the Hub.
In February, Amazon started negotiations to lease all the space in a planned 18-story office building in the Seaport, enough space for 2,000 or more new employees—a search unrelated to HQ2. Most notably for the startup space, Amazon closed a deal to acquire Boston-based Pillpack for “just under $1 billion” in June, which came after several other acquisitions and investments in the area.
The final selection of NYC and Arlington closed more than a year of speculations on the new Amazon site, which started with a first announcement by the company in September 2017. In January, the e-commerce giant narrowed the pool of 238 candidates across North America to a list 19 cities in the U.S and one in Canada.
At that time, Boston made the cut as one of the cities that passed this first selection; an Amazon spokesperson said that the selected location was “Boston metro area,” including both bids from Boston and Somerville.
In the months that followed, the allure of Boston as a potential pick seemed to fade away. In April, only 34% of Boston locals voiced “strong support” for HQ2 – the lowest percentage among the 19 competitors. During the fall, Amazon officials made multiple visits to some of the shortlisted candidates, including Chicago and cities in the Washington, D.C., area.
Here’s a complete timeline of Amazon’s HQ2 search.
