Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren is urging Amazon to strongly consider the Rochester metro area for the company’s eastern headquarters, in the wake of news on Thursday the company will not be locating its so-called Amazon HQ2 in New York City.
Amazon’s original plan was estimated to have brought 25,000 jobs to New York City.
The online retailer faced fierce opposition from some New York politicians who were unhappy with the nearly $3 billion in tax incentives Amazon was promised. Along with thousands of jobs, the Seattle company had planned to spend $2.5 billion building its new offices.
"We are disappointed to have reached this conclusion … we love New York,'' the company said in a blog post, adding that it has 5,000 workers in the city and plans to grow those teams.
Amazon said Thursday it does not plan to look for another location at this time and will continue to build out offices in Arlington, Virginia, and Nashville, Tennessee.
There had been a pitch by upstate cities, including Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse when Amazon was looking for other cities to put a second headquarters in.
Mayor Warren issued a statement saying, “Amazon’s HQ2 could transform I-90 into an innovation corridor delivering jobs and opportunity to all of our residents and businesses.”
She notes that Amazon has already opted to open a new distribution in Henrietta, as a result of information garnered from the initial submission proposal for a headquarters.
Warren says that, “Rochester’s offerings include a geographic position central to many of North America’s largest cities and population centers; a brilliant workforce powered by 19 colleges and universities; a growing Downtown Innovation Zone; and an excellent quality of life boosted by a low cost of living, short commute times, a thriving arts and entertainment scene and beautiful natural resources that are the envy of other cities.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
