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Amazon Officially Announces New Headquarters In These Two Cities

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Online retailer Amazon officially announced it will be spending billions to split its next headquarters between two locations in Long Island City, New York, and Arlington, Virginia, Tuesday morning.

Amazon’s decision to create two additional locations has raised the question of whether they will be decision-making nuclei or glorified office spaces. It is unclear if CEO and founder Jeff Bezos will spend much time at either, according to Amazon.

Both new locations — Long Island City in Queens and Arlington near Washington, D.C. — will see approximately 50,000 Amazon positions divided between them that could start being filled in 2019, according to Amazon.

More than 230 cities competed to attract Amazon to their locations with offers of tax breaks, grants and even publicity stunt, reported The Wall Street Journal.

“Anything they want named Amazon — I’ll change my name to Amazon Cuomo if that’s what it takes,” Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Nov. 5, according to Reuters.

His joke, and incentive package, must have paid off as the online giant will move to a newly revitalized area that used to be a Queens manufacturing hub.

Some of Amazon’s requirements for its new locations including proximity to a major metropolitan area with more than a million residents, an international airport and mass transit, reported The Associated Press.

Amazon’s original headquarters in Seattle has roughly 40,000 employees, according to the AP. The corporation has 610,000 employees internationally and was founded in 1995 as an online bookstore.

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