Amazon Drops Plans For New York Headquarters

A man runs along the waterfront in the Long Island City neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City, which had been the planned location for a secondary Amazon headquarters.

By Alina Selyukh

February 14, 2019

Updated at 12:48 p.m. ET

Amazon will no longer build new headquarters in New York City after weeks of opposition and protests there. It's a big reversal of its much-hyped decision to build a new HQ in Queens after a highly publicized nationwide search.

"After much thought and deliberation, we've decided not to move forward with our plans to build a headquarters for Amazon in Long Island City, Queens," Amazon said in a statement on Thursday.

An Amazon spokeswoman told NPR that the company plans no further negotiations with city and state officials in New York, where the firm has faced scathing criticism in recent City Council hearings. Local union leaders had organized protests against the company. The state's Senate leader also recently nominated an ardent critic of Amazon's deal to the state board that had control over Amazon's plan for Queens.

"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 we and many others envisioned in Long Island City," the company added, citing a recent poll it had commissioned showing that the majority of New Yorkers supported Amazon's presence.

Amazon said it will not search for a new location for another HQ. This leaves the company with its main headquarters in Seattle and a second one planned for Northern Virginia.

"We do not intend to reopen the HQ2 search at this time," Amazon said. "We will proceed as planned in Northern Virginia and Nashville, and we will continue to hire and grow across our 17 corporate offices and tech hubs in the U.S. and Canada."