Facing opposition, Amazon scraps New York HQ2 plans

Enlarge / Protestors at New York City Hall on January 30, 2019. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) (credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Amazon is canceling its controversial plan to build a new corporate campus in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens. The plan, which included almost $3 billion in subsidies and tax breaks, provoked a grassroots backlash.

"The commitment to build a new headquarters requires positive, collaborative relationships with state and local elected officials who will be supportive over the long-term," Amazon said in a statement. "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."

In 2017, Amazon announced that a single city would be chosen for Amazon's "HQ2," a second headquarters that would be an equal of Amazon's original Seattle location and employ as many as 50,000 people. But Amazon ultimately decided to split this "headquarters" up into two pieces, announcing plans to build one campus in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC and the other in Queens. Each location was slated to get around 25,000 new jobs.

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