Amazon has chosen a pair of cities to build their second headquarters in, company officials confirmed Tuesday morning.
The company's "HQ2" will be in both New York City and Arlington, Virginia. Officials also announced that Amazon will build a Center for Excellence in Nashville to serve the company's operations business.
Between the three locations, Amazon officials said they expect to create more than 55,000 jobs.
Update 10:30 a.m. EST Nov. 13: Amazon's planned Operations Center of Excellence will be based along the Cumberland River in downtown Nashville.
The company expects to invest more than $230 million in the center and create more than $1 billion in incremental tax revenue over the next 10 years.
"These are quality, high-paying jobs that will boost our economy, provide our workers with new opportunities, and show the rest of the world that Nashville is a premiere location for business investment," Nashville Mayor David Briley said Tuesday in a statement.
The Operations Center of excellence will serve as Amazon's Eastern U.S. regional hub for the technological and management functions of the company's retail operations division.
Update 10:15 a.m. EST Nov. 13: Amazon officials said the planned headquarters in Arlington, in the Washington D.C. metro area, will be located in National Landing, an urban community in northern Virginia.
"This is a big win for Virginia – I'm proud Amazon recognizes the tremendous assets the Commonwealth has to offer and plans to deepen its roots here," Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said Tuesday in a statement. "Virginia put together a proposal for Amazon that we believe represents a new model of economic development for the 21st century, and I'm excited to say that our innovative approach was successful."
The company's New York headquarters will be in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, just across the East River from Midtown Manhattan and the Upper East Side.
"With an average salary of $150,000 per year for the tens of thousands of new jobs Amazon is creating in Queens, economic opportunity and investment will flourish for the entire region," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday in a statement.
Officials expect to start hiring people for both locations next year.
Update 10 a.m. EST Nov. 13: "We are excited to build new headquarters in New York City and Northern Virginia," Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon said Tuesday 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."
Original report: The New York City and Washington, D.C., metro areas are splitting Amazon's planned second headquarters project, according to a Wall Street Journal report Monday night. The official announcement could be made as soon as Tuesday, the media outlet said, citing unnamed "people familiar with the matter."
Politico published a similar report early Tuesday, also citing unnamed sources.
The news outlets reported that the company has settled on New York's Long Island City as well as Crystal City, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.
Losing dibs on the tech giant's proposed HQ2 and a projected 50,000 jobs would be tough news for boosters in a host of other cities that tried to lure Amazon as it promised a major headquarters expansion beyond its Seattle base.
Amazon generated enormous attention with its very public call out last year for cities interested in landing the project.
– The Cox Media Group National Content Desk contributed to this report.
Cox Media Group
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