Amazon Just Canceled HQ2 In New York, And Everywhere Else Too
This morning Amazon made public their cancelled plans to create a headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, New York. They appear to blame this cancelled move on "a number of state and local politicians" and their opposition to Amazon's NY-based presence. They suggested in a document released today that these politicians "will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project we and many others envisioned in Long Island City."
It would appear that Amazon is putting a hold on their Headquarters 2 (HQ2) search at this time. They're already working on plans for Northern Virginia and Nashville, and "will continue to hire and grow across our 17 corporate offices and tech hubs in the U.S. and Canada." Basically they seem pretty mad at New York at this moment and intend on making clear how great it would have been if New York would have welcomed them with open arms – what with the jobs and whatnot.
The announcement about stopping their plans for Long Island City does not mean Amazon will be pulling back any other operations in the state. They've suggested that they intend to "continue growing" the teams of employees they've got in Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Manhattan, all "over 5,000" of them.
Amazon suggested in their release that both Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio, and their staffs, "supported [Amazon] during the process" and "enthusiastically and graciously invited us to build in New York City." The statement read, "Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio have worked tirelessly on behalf of New Yorkers to encourage local investment and job creation, and we can't speak positively enough about all their efforts."
What could have happened that was so epic a failure here for Amazon that they'd stop looking for HQ2 entirely? Could it be that the company really only wanted to be in NYC, and all the other options weren't good enough? Meanwhile Apple is well on their way to another campus, too – because why not?