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Amazon's search for a 2d headquarters, far from Seattle, took a surprise twist over the weekend: That second HQ might actually be two headquarters, not one. I would near likely exist in Crystal City section of Arlington, VA (main photo), simply across the Potomac River from Washington. The other site is less certain, but new reports advise New York City and Dallas are leading contenders, New York more so than the Big D.

Amazon said it wants an area with a technically savvy workforce, skillful mass transportation of all kinds (bus, runway, commuter rail, air), educational institutions nearby, and reasonably priced housing for workers at all levels. Neither New York or metro DC are non known for inexpensive housing, only you can't accept everything.

Fewer Disruptions With a Pair of Smaller HQ2s

Amazon has been talking publicly almost a second headquarters for a year. Information technology narrowed the field from 238 dreamers such equally Frisco (Texas, not San Francisco) to 20 contenders (beneath) in Jan. Now Amazon appears to be backing away from Programme A, putting 50,000 people in ane location, even over two decades. Then it's looking at ii cities with 25,000 people each — and also making ii cities and states happy, not just i.

According to The Wall Street Journal, which has been the leader in breaking this round of news:

By building two headquarters, Amazon can tap different geographic regions for talent, including some who may not desire to move too far from abode. It may also non be competing with other major tech giants in a given area, similar it does with Microsoft Corp. in the Seattle area. Additionally, the decision would allow it to lessen the potential headaches for chosen areas. Amazon has wanted to avert being the only large company in town, something it has dealt with in Seattle [what'southward Microsoft, and so? – Ed.] …  Calculation 50,000 workers—even over more than than a decade—would likely crusade some hiccups for transit systems and potentially lead to issues similar a lack of affordable housing.

Northern Virginia's Crystal City, a neighborhood in Arlington County, appears to be a front-runner to take 1 of the two final positions, according to people familiar with the affair. … Crystal City, only across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., has an urban feel, numerous government offices and a gear up-to-go campus with empty, older role infinite that Amazon could use. The expanse has good access to tech talent and transportation, two factors that rank loftier on Amazon's wish list.

To that, I'd add, much of Crystal City feels gentrified, with lots of coffee shops, boutiques, and nightspots. If parts are crumbling, information technology's not way run down. And in that location is a lot of available building space, much in the easily of a single developer.

Additionally, the fast-growing (fifty-fifty by Amazon standards) Amazon Web Services has a significant presence in the Washington expanse. Were Amazon to grow so big it needed to break upwards or be broken up — anti-trust and all — that could be the AWS headquarters.

The other reason for Amazon to have an functioning in the Washington area is to continue an eye on the government, now that the government is watching Amazon: a) Amazon is the world'southward second-biggest company after Apple (stock marketplace valuation, or market cap, and b) and the Trump administration, starting from the top, has taken a disliking to Amazon. It is Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos who bought The Washington Post, not Tim Cook. A generation agone, tech companies thought they could do their thing and the authorities would exist good to them. Now they know, every bit defense contractors, Hollywood, and big pharma know, that whispering in the ears of Congressmen and White Business firm aides pays off.

Amazon HQ in New York's Long Island City would look out on the new Cornell Tech campus in the East River with Manhattan in the background. (Photo: Cornell Tech. Main photograph: Bill Howard)

New York vs. Dallas: Who Has the Edge?

Dallas seems less likely now, but it's the toll leader among the 3 finalists. Doing business organisation costs less in Texas and Dallas. There are all fashion of incentives (the kind you don't become moving a hair salon from Seattle) in the form of taxation abatements, various grants, and toll sharing for infrastructure (buildings, access roads, and mass transit stops). Texas likewise doesn't have personal income taxes. The former DallasForenoon News building has been offered up as a starter site: 7 acres about Amtrak, light rails, I-30, and I-35.

The possible New York City site, Long Island City (photo above), is the western border of the borough of Queens (Queens is technically part of Long Island). It's just across the East River from Manhattan; between the two lies Roosevelt Island, where Cornell University and Israel's Technion (their MIT, Stanford and Cal Tech rolled into one) are building a billion-dollar tech campus. As for pedagogy, New York City, equally former Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, has more students than Boston has — Bloomberg pauses for dramatic outcome — people. Simply to the south of LIC is NYC'southward hippest borough, Brooklyn, although non exactly a depression-cost living surface area. Just you tin can rub elbows with Matt Damon and Norah Jones.

If personal politics enter into the equation, Blue Country New York (and certainly bluer NYC) may have an advantage over Texas and the Large D. Texas is less friendly on gender problems. But demographics will probably flip Texas blue during the build-out phase. And every corporation loves the word "affordable."

The New York Times reported Monday dark that Long Island City was the likely second site, not Dallas, "according to people familiar with the decision-making process." Two of Amazon's largest non-Seattle outposts are in New York Urban center (2,000 in publishing, advertising, and fashion) and 2,500 in D.C. and Northern Virginia (corporate, tech employees).

The Long Isle Urban center site about resembles Seattle politically, that is solidly Autonomous. Seattle votes 33 per centum points more Democratic than the nation equally a whole, Long Island Urban center 31 points more Democratic, and Crystal Metropolis 21 points more Autonomous. Dallas is more mainstream and votes v points more than Republican than the US as a whole based on the 2016 and 2012 presidential elections, according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index. (The nation, as a whole, votes 51-49 Democratic.)

How the Top xx Became 3 Finalists

Amazon's Top xx list of finalists were named in January. It included metro D.C. with three split locations (Washington; Montgomery Canton, Maryland; and Northern Virginia at present known to be Crystal City) and New York with two (Newark, NJ, a 20-minute railroad train ride from Manhattan, and Long Island Metropolis, just across the East River from Manhattan). The 20:

Atlanta
Austin
Boston
Chicago
Columbus (Ohio)
Dallas
Denver
Indianapolis
Los Angeles
Miami
Montgomery County (Maryland)
Nashville
Newark (New Bailiwick of jersey)
New York Metropolis
Northern Virginia
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Raleigh (North Carolina)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Washington D.C.

One of the most intriguing of the xx was Toronto. It is Northward America's 4th largest metropolis (later Mexico City, NYC, and LA). The metro area population tops half dozen 1000000, and fits the transportation/instruction/tech workforce criteria, plus one informal criterion (hip place to live),andit's just outside the U.S. Being in Canada means healthcare is assured (by the government) and, should Jeff Bezos want to get to the mattresses, Toronto is a large up-yours to the Trump administration. Where Microsoft'south Steve Ballmer and Paul Allen bought sports teams to play with, Bezos bought the WaPost as mentioned above, and it has been the biggest thorn in the President's side other than The New York Times.

Most W Coast cities were out because they were too close to Seattle; only LA survived to the round of 20.

Denver was considered ane of the probable final finalists when the twenty were announced and is the most surprising city not to be in the reported circular of 3. It may be that Denver ranked high on all attributes, but other than perhaps cost-of-living was a winner in none. New York and DC dwarf Denver in terms of universities and tech workers nearby. Gov. John Hickenlooper told Colorado Public Radio two weeks ago, "I know in that location were issues effectually, are nosotros also shut to Seattle? Wouldn't they rather have their second big hub on the Eastward Declension?"

Of the two finalist metro-NYC sites, Newark was the long shot. It has developed a commercial corridor stretching from Newark Penn Station (commuter rail, lite track, subway, Amtrak), Panasonic'due south new United states of america HQ, and Prudential Insurance, to the Prudential Eye loonshit, Amazon subsidiary Aural, and a four-college district with 40,000 students. Newark Airdrome, a 10-minute railroad train and monorail ride abroad, beats overcrowded LaGuardia easily down. Just Newark is nevertheless rough in many ways, and if Amazon gentrified the urban center, there would be the optics of minorities being pushed out, where Long Island Urban center would merely displace lower and middle-income people of all stripes.

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