Amazon selects NYC, Virginia for second headquarters

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - Online retail and cloud services giant Amazon announced Tuesday that it had selected New York City and Northern Virginia as the locations for the company's newest headquarters.

The split headquarters will be located in Long Island City in Queens and the Crystal City area of Arlington County following a yearlong search.

Based in Seattle, Amazon narrowed its search to 20 cities at the beginning of the year.

The project is expected to bring 25,000 jobs to each of the locations.

Long Island City is one of the fastest-developing neighborhoods in New York City.

Amazon, which got its start as an online bookstore two decades ago, has grown to a behemoth that had nearly $180 billion in revenue last year. Its workforce has ballooned to more than 610,000 employees worldwide, making it the second largest U.S.-based, publicly-traded employer behind Walmart, according to FactSet. That growth has also made its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos one of the world's richest people, with his stake in Amazon worth more than $135 billion. 

The D.C. region was seen as a favorite to land the new headquarters, as many drew connections between Bezos and the nation's capital after he purchased the Washington Post and a mansion in D.C.'s prominent Kalorama neighborhood.

Amazon is also familiar with Northern Virginia with data centers in Ashburn, Sterling, Chantilly, Manassas, and Haymarket. 

With the Associated Press