Several months after Amazon pulled out of a plan for an NYC Headquarters, they will now be signing a lease for office space in Manhattan to house over 1,500 employees.
What We Know:
- This is occurring less than a year after Amazon ended a deal for a bigger headquarters in the borough of Queens. That office was expected to bring 25,000 jobs to the city, according to the Wall Street Journal.
- The lease is smaller but it renewed debate over the $3 billion incentive package offered to Amazon for the Queens project. It made people question whether it was excessive and if it did more to hurt taxpayers than to help the community as a whole. The Queen’s project was ended due to protests by politicians and activists.
- The Amazon headquarters will be at a property that is being redeveloped at 410 Tenth Avenue. No special tax credits or other inducements like those it had been offered previously.
When asked about the new office, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went on to say, “Won’t you look at that: Amazon is coming to NYC anyway – *without* requiring the public to finance shady deals, helipad handouts for Jeff Bezos, & corporate giveaways.”