Amazon.com(NEW YORK) — Amazon is expected to announce later Tuesday where its new headquarters will be built, sources close to the matter told ABC News.
The Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, just across the East River from Manhattan, and Crystal City, Virginia, about a mile from the Pentagon, were selected by the retail giant, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal.
The Journal confirmed the locations, about which media outlets have been speculating since at least September 2017. The New York Times, citing people familiar with the matter, also reported Amazon was expected to choose sites in New York and Virginia.
Seattle-based Amazon declined to comment to the Journal.
CEO Jeff Bezos said last year he was seeking a metropolitan location with at least one million residents for the so-called HQ2, which sparked fierce competition among potential suitors. Amazon said it had narrowed its list of potential locations to 20 in January.
“We expect to invest over $5 billion in construction and grow this second headquarters to include as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs — it will be a full equal to our current campus in Seattle,” Amazon said in a press release announcing the project. “In addition to Amazon’s direct hiring and investment, construction and ongoing operation of Amazon HQ2 is expected to create tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the surrounding community.”
A source close to the negotiations told ABC News last week that when Amazon executives visited New York, “Long Island City made a real impression. It’s an actual neighborhood. It looks a little like Seattle, with bars and restaurants. It’s clearly what the company is looking for.”
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