Amazon HQ2 (and 3): The winners are Northern Virginia and New York City

Amazon.com, Inc.'s second headquarters are split in two: The company will create new headquarters in National Landing (or Crystal City), in Arlington, Virginia, and Long Island City, a neighborhood in Queens, New York. The company announced its decision on Tuesday morning, ending a search that began more than a year ago.

It said it plans to start hiring in both locations in 2019. Amazon additionally said it would build a new operations "Center of Excellence" in Nashville, Tennessee, and expects to hire 5,000 employees there. Last September, Jeff Bezos said he expected a second headquarters to be a "full equal" to the one in Seattle. Amazon promised to deliver 50,000 jobs and $5 billion worth of construction to the winning HQ2 city. The company said employees in Seattle receive a combined total of $25 billion in compensation — powerful fuel for a local economy. Now, with two new locations chosen for a total of three headquarters, Amazon says it plans to hire more than 25,000 employees in Virginia and New York respectively and invest $2.5 billion in each.

More than 200 cities initially applied to host Amazon's HQ2. In January, the company announced it had a shortlist of 20 places, and soon after there were reports of company visits to those places.

Three of the locations were in the Washington, D.C., area. Others were are diverse as Indianapolis and Los Angeles. There were locations on both coasts, including New York and Boston. Amazon has said in the past that heads of units inside the company could decide to move to the new location. That could create upheaval here in Seattle, but there's time: It will take several years to build the new Amazon campuses, so the impact could be delayed.

Credit: KUOW Graphic/Kara McDermott



Kara McDermott and Sydney Brownstone contributed to this story.