This week Amazon is expected to close the frantic bidding war for its second national headquarters. The e-commerce giant is dangling a choice prize: up to $5 billion in capital investment in the next 15 to 17 years and as many as 50,000 new jobs with annual salaries averaging $100,000.One big rent-seeking project...
What will it take for the famously cost- conscious company to make a move to pricey New York? Already Amazon has been promised $43 million in subsidies for a planned expansion here. In its request for proposals, it said: “Incentives offered … will be significant factors in the decision-making process.”
On the issue of incentives, the state and the city appear to disagree. Mayor Bill de Blasio is the rare public official to have announced what aid he is not willing to offer. “We will not provide the traditional add-on economic subsidies,” he said Sept. 25. “That’s not something we believe in.”
Even so, de Blasio is pursuing a deal. So are state economic development officials.
“New York will be very competitive in terms of its inducements for Amazon,” Howard Zemsky, president of the Empire State Development Corp., said at a Crain’s conference Oct. 5. “I know some people don’t care for these kinds of inducements. You’re going to find this is a very competitive circumstance. We will be prudent, but we’ll be competitive.”
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Amazon will expect subsidies. NYC's record on attracting jobs through incentives is mixed. The Seattle company is not just looking for extra space.
Crain's New York Business reports:
