[NYguy]

^ Yeah, what he's most outraged about is the way the governor intends to work around him and the nitwits at the city council. Because the state is taking lead on this development, their usual shenanigans won't apply.



https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/t...dquarters.html

Amazon Announces New York and Virginia as HQ2 Picks





By Karen Weise
Nov. 13, 2018

Amazon laid out its plans for two of the biggest economic development projects in the country on Tuesday, announcing that it will put major corporate outposts in New York City and Arlington, Va.

The two locations, in Long Island City in Queens and Crystal City in Arlington, just outside of Washington, will eventually house at least 25,000 employees each, the company said in a statement. It also said the new sites would require $5 billion in construction and other investments.

The company also said it will develop a smaller site in Nashville that will focus on operations and logistics. Amazon said that site will create 5,000 jobs.

Amazon could receive more than $2 billion in tax incentives across the two top locations, the company said in its announcement. Up to $1.2 billion of that will come from New York state’s Excelsior program, a discretionary tax credit. In Virginia, the company could receive up to $550 million in cash incentives from the state. Both programs are tied to the number of jobs the company creates — if Amazon’s hiring falls short of projections, the incentive payments will be smaller.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said in a statement that “with Amazon committing to expand its headquarters in Long Island City, New York can proudly say that we have attracted one of the largest, most competitive economic development investments in U.S. history.”

The company said it would start hiring in New York, Virginia and Tennessee in 2019.

Jay Carney, a senior vice president at Amazon, said the company looked at more than 100 aspects of each location, but “during the process it became clear to us that the overriding criteria was going to be the ability to find and attract talent.”

At a multi-hour meeting in August, the team realized they’d have an easier time doing hiring the number of workers they wanted if they split the headquarters between two areas. “We also think that 25,000 as a floor is easier for the communities to absorb,” he said.

The two locations have parallels. Both sit just across a river from the heart of an iconic metropolis. Both are also seen as having a lot of unfilled potential: Crystal City is a neighborhood filled with office buildings developed in the 1970s for defense contractors but has had high vacancies after the Pentagon reorganized in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks. And Long Island City is a mixed neighborhood home to new apartment towers, low-rise manufacturing and the country’s largest public housing complex.

https://ny.curbed.com/2018/11/13/180...opposition-nyc

Queens officials come out against Amazon’s HQ2 in Long Island City
Some elected officials plan to hold a rally in opposition to Amazon on Wednesday

By Tanay Warerkar
Nov 13, 2018

In New York City, many elected officials, particularly those representing Long Island City and the surrounding neighborhoods, are opposed to the decision. So far, City Council member Jimmy Van Bramer and State Senator Michael Gianaris have both come out against Amazon, saying “offering massive corporate welfare from scarce public resources to one of the wealthiest corporations in the world at a time of great need in our state is just wrong.”

While these elected officials aren’t against Amazon opening its second headquarters in New York City per se, they are against it bypassing the city review process.

The New York Times noted on Tuesday that a group of six elected officials including Van Bramer and Gianaris had sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos last year in support of the company opening a second headquarters in NYC. Both officials clarified their position on Tuesday saying they never supported the new location without a thorough community engagement process.

There will be a public review process, just not one where these idiots can derail the show, and they're hopping mad about it. I love it.