New York City Submits Bid for Amazon’s Second Headquarters
Long Island City, Midtown West, Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn Tech Triangle all floated as potential locations
By Rebecca Baird-Remba October 19, 2017 12:03 pm
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New York City lit up the Empire State Building and 1 World Trade Center “Amazon (AMZN) Orange” last night in an effort to attract the e-retailing giant. At the same time, it submitted a formal bid for Amazon’s second, $5 billion headquarters, according to a press release from the New York City Economic Development Corporation.
The proposal names four neighborhoods as potential destinations for the Seattle-based tech company: Midtown West, Long Island City, Lower Manhattan and the “Brooklyn Tech Triangle,” which includes Dumbo, the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Downtown Brooklyn.
After Amazon announced its search for a city to accommodate a new headquarters last month, New York launched its own mini-competition. Officials received 27 proposals. Borough Presidents Eric Adams and Ruben Diaz threw their respective hats for the Bronx and Brooklyn into the ring, and groups of developers and neighborhood organizations banded together for bids as well.
But only those four neighborhoods met the company’s requirements, which included a need for 500,000 square feet of commercial space by 2019 and up to 8 million square feet of commercial space beginning in 2027. The area would also have to accommodate up to 50,000 Amazon workers and offer mass transit options and easy access to highways and airports.
The city plans to offer Amazon the same subsidies and tax breaks that it would give any other corporation, according to The New York Times. The state is also assembling an incentive package, but it wouldn’t tell the paper exactly what it planned to include. Aetna, for example, scored $9.6 million in city tax benefits and $24 million in state tax credits for its planned 145,000-square-foot headquarters at 61 Ninth Avenue in Chelsea. The state is also submitting four bids for different regions of New York: Buffalo and Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, and the downstate area of Long Island, New York City and Westchester County.
“The brightest minds and innovators want to live in New York,” the mayor wrote in a letter addressed to Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos. “The people who live and come here experience a quality of life unlike anywhere else, from our incomparable public spaces and cultural institutions to our dynamic neighborhoods. This is the safest big city in America, an open city that welcomes people from every corner of the country and the globe.”
EDC’s pitch also highlights Amazon’s current footprint in New York City, which has grown rapidly over the past six months. The e-commerce behemoth recently inked deals for 360,000 square feet of office space at 5 Manhattan West, an 850,000-square-foot distribution center on Staten Island and a bookstore and offices spanning 470,000 square feet at 7 West 34th Street.
