It may not be HQ2 but AOC declares victory and trolls Amazon over New York expansion
Can we call it HQ1/2?
Less than a year after walking away from plans to put its second headquarters in Queens, Amazon has signed a new giant lease in New York City. It didn't take long for Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to troll the company on Twitter.
"Won't you look at that: Amazon is coming to NYC anyway—*without* requiring the public to finance shady deals, helipad handouts for Jeff Bezos, & corporate giveaways," she wrote Friday.
In a separate tweet, showing her sitting on a yellow bench, she added: "Me waiting on the haters to apologize after we were proven right on Amazon and saved the public billions."
The Amazon lease, which will accommodate more than 1,500 employees, is a far smaller footprint than the giant retailer was pledging with its second headquarters on Long Island.
Amazon had promised to bring between 25,000 to 40,000 jobs to the city in exchange for up to $3 billion in tax breaks and financial incentives from the state and city governments. Ocasio-Cortez's vocal opposition, along with others, was blamed for scuttling the deal.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Amazon.com is taking 335,000 square feet on the city's west side in the new Hudson Yards neighborhood. According to the newspaper, Amazon said it did not receive any tax credits or other inducements.
Amazon already has more than 3,500 employees in its New York City tech hub and told the newspaper it will continue to grow.
Public subsidies for the HQ2 project as well as concerns over the gentrification of Long Island City sparked significant political opposition, including Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC.
"Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers & their neighbors defeated Amazon's corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world," she wrote on Twitter after the deal collapsed.
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