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Amazon cancels New York plans | Current world | DW

So far, things have been going very well for the online retailer: After Amazon announced that it was looking for a new location, the online department store simply turned the tables. Instead of taking care of itself, Amazon had cities, states and counties in North America write applications for a year that outbid each other with their offers.

Finally, in November, Amazon decided to create around 25,000 jobs each in New York and in Arlington, Virginia, near the capital Washington. The planned settlement in Long Island City in the borough of Queens was regarded as the perfect complement to the previous company headquarters in Seattle on the west coast. Now the online department store has completely canceled its New York plans. The online retailer referred above all to resistance from local politics.

New York offered billions in tax breaks

In New York, Amazon was hoping for tax breaks of nearly three billion dollars at the top – and in return promised a boost for the local economy and investments of 2.5 billion dollars.

No Second Headquarters in Long Island City – Citizens protested against billion dollar subsidies and didn’t want rents to rise

But some politicians and local groups were not happy about Amazon as a new neighbor and also found the tax commitments to the company excessive. Another concern: Thousands of very well-paid tech workers could skyrocket real estate prices.

Amazon received 238 applications

The project in Virginia should meanwhile be pushed ahead, announced Amazon. There are currently no plans to restart the search for another location. Amazon already employs more than 5,000 people in New York, and the number will continue to grow.

The main reason for splitting the “second headquarters” into two locations was the problem of finding enough suitable tech staff. In addition, there were concerns that the planned expansion, which is likely to be associated with a large influx of workers, could overwhelm a single location and its infrastructure.

Jeff Bezos

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos did not expect citizen protests (archive image)

Amazon had been conducting the search with publicity since September 2017 and caused a stir. The US group, which last had around 613,000 employees, received 238 applications. Some candidates worked hard – Jeff Bezos got a huge cactus from Tucson, Arizona, and Atlanta’s suburb of Stonecrest even wanted to rename part of the city the “City of Amazon”.

Applications received valuable data

In January 2018, the group then presented the 20 most promising candidates, including the major cities of New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and Toronto. The many applications also gave Amazon insights into the local conditions in numerous cities in North America. This is sometimes valuable data that Amazon may be able to use for itself.

nob / haz (dpa, afp)

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