Officials with the online retailing giant Amazon announced Thursday that the company is pulling out of plans to build one of its headquarters in New York City.
"After much thought and deliberation, we've decided not to move forward with our plans to build a headquarters for Amazon in Long Island City, Queens," company officials said Thursday in a blog post. "We are disappointed to have reached this conclusion — we love New York."
The company had faced opposition from state and local leaders who were unhappy with the nearly $3 billion in tax incentives Amazon was promised.
“While polls show that 70 percent of New Yorkers support our plans and investment, a number of state and local politicians have made it clear that they oppose our presence and will not work with us to build the type of relationships that are required to go forward with the project,” Amazon officials said Thursday.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo last year called Amazon’s decision to build in New York City an “economic opportunity and investment (that would) flourish for the entire region.” The Seattle-based company had planned to bring 25,000 jobs to New York, and spend $2.5 billion building its offices in Queens, just across the East River from Midtown Manhattan and the Upper East Side.
Amazon officials said Thursday that there were no plans to find another location for a company headquarters. They added that Amazon intends to move forward with plans to build another headquarters in the Washington, D.C., metro area and to build a new operations center in Nashville.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
About the Author
