- It's over: Amazon said Thursday that it's canceling its plan to build a headquarters in Long Island City, Queens.
- What's next: The company will still build offices in Northern Virginia and Nashville, Tennessee, as planned.
Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is defending Amazon and criticizing the progressives who opposed the tech company's decision to build a headquarters in NYC.
From a spokesperson:
"While these transitional plans may change, our long-term plans to relocate most of our current employees in Long Island City to other New York metropolitan area locations have not changed."
Citi's lease at One Court Square is up in 2020, and it has been trying to pare down its real estate in New York.
The bank in 2015 began to move its HQ from midtown Manhattan to two huge buildings in the Tribeca neighborhood of lower Manhattan. That spot will eventually house 12,000 Citi employees.
Cuomo said "a small group politicians put their own narrow political interests above their community."
Johnson said he hoped Amazon's reversal would start a "conversation about vulture capitalism and where our tax dollars are best spent," a reference to the subsidies Amazon would have received for coming to New York.
"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 said.
Amazon said there are no plans to "reopen the HQ2 search at this time" after dropping New York.
"Amazon now has the opportunity to join in Newark’s story of a city on the rise.”
"We gave Amazon the opportunity to be a good neighbor and do business in the greatest city in the world. Instead of working with the community, Amazon threw away that opportunity," he added.