Amazon never needed over three billion dollars to come to New York

Slate

Amazon is reportedly back in the market for office space in New York City, which, if true, is a sweet bit of vindication for critics of the company’s whole HQ2 fracas.

 

In February, Amazon dropped its plans to build a massive office complex in Queens amid political blowback over a package of state and city subsidies the project would have received. Now, according to the New York Post, the company is shopping for real estate on the West Side of Manhattan. “The tech giant has been in talks with owners of two shiny new skyscrapers located just one block west of Penn Station — the newly built One Manhattan West and its soon-to-be sister project, Two Manhattan West,” the paper reports, citing “sources.” The company, which already has 5,000 employees in the city, is apparently looking for 100,000 square feet or “much more.”

That footprint is significantly smaller than the 4 million to 8 million square feet of space Amazon planned to build out for its HQ2 project. But the fact that the company is still planning to grow its New York presence without a large, specially crafted subsidy package seems to prove the basic point many of the deal’s critics made, which is that major cities with large pools of business and engineering talent do not need to stoop to corporate welfare in order to attract major tech companies, which tend to go where they can find enough employees. 

 

 

Senate Majority Leader gives Gianaris ability to quash Amazon corporate welfare deal as de Blasio starts job training program designed for it

 

QNS


Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins recommended state Senator Michael Gianaris as a member of the state Public Authorities Control Board, which could potentially veto the Amazon project.

 
Gianaris, the deputy majority leader of the Senate, has been a leading opponent of the Amazon deal due to the incentive package worth nearly $3 billion in taxpayer funds.
 
“New York needs responsible fiscal stewardship now more than ever and ensuring our economic development dollars are well spent is a responsibility I take very seriously,” Gianaris said Monday. 

“I appreciate Leader Stewart-Cousin’s faith in me and am honored she submitted my name to serve on the PACB.”

We shall see.

Meanwhile...

QNS

As it gears up for the full arrival of Amazon’s HQ2 campus in Long Island City is the coming years, the de Blasio administration announced Jan. 28 it is offering up to $300,000 in micro-grants to qualified organizations that specialize in workforce development.

The grants will support research and planning into innovative approaches the city could take to promote training and hiring of underrepresented New Yorkers in tech and other in-demand sectors.

“Preparing New Yorkers for the jobs of tomorrow and making sure those jobs are accessible to residents from all backgrounds with different skill sets is critical to leveling the economic playing field,” the New York City Economic Development Corporation President and CEO James Patchett said. “We are excited to partner with the Office of Workforce Development to catalyze innovative workforce training programs that will help ensure New Yorkers are ahead of the game as the city’s tech sector booms.”

 Through a request for expressions of interest, known as an RFEI, the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development and the NYCEDC will work with community-based organizations with funds to develop effective, innovative programmatic concepts the city and its partners can use to help ensure local talent is prepared to access new hiring tech opportunities.