Amazon Announces HQ2 Locations: New York City and Arlington, Virginia

The hunt for Amazon’s HQ2 is over, as the online retailer has announced two cities for its new headquarters: New York City and Arlington, Virginia.

The announcement this morning was leaked last night by the WSJ and earlier, essentially eliminating Toronto as one of the final candidate cities.

The company says it will invest $5 billion and create over 25,000 jobs in each city, for a total of over 50,000 jobs, resulting in three Amazon headquarters now in Seattle, New York City and Arlington.

Amazon says it also will build a new Center of Excellence for its Operations business, in Nashville, Tennessee, set to create over 5,000 jobs.

“We are excited to build new headquarters in New York City and Northern Virginia,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, in a statement. “These two locations will allow us to attract world-class talent that will help us to continue inventing for customers for years to come. The team did a great job selecting these sites, and we look forward to becoming an even bigger part of these communities.”

The Arlington headquarters will be in National Landing in the Washington, D.C. metro area, while the New York City headquarters will be in Queens, in the Long Island City neighbourhood.

Amazon says hiring at both locations will start in 2019, along with the new Nashville location.

Many believed the hunt for a new headquarters would be located to a single location, but two locations have emerged. In the company’s FAQ on why they picked two locations, Amazon writes, “We can recruit more top talent by being in two locations. These are fantastic cities that attract a lot of great talent.”

The year-long Amazon HQ2 search saw numerous Canadian cities partake in the process, with Toronto being narrowed down to a final list of 20 contenders.