Amazon HQ2 returning to New York City a '50-50 chance': Congressman Meeks
Don’t call it an act of desperation.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and other elected officials rolled out a charm offensive to implore Amazon to reconsider abandoning its plans to build its headquarters, dubbed HQ2, in Long Island City, New York.
Beyond Cuomo personally appealing to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, business leaders and state officials also signed an open letter published as a full-page ad in the New York Times Friday inviting the tech giant back to the city.
Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), one of about 70 people to sign the letter, told Yahoo Finance YFi PM he believes the plan to win Amazon back has a 50-50 shot at succeeding.
“I know that Amazon wanted to come to New York because of what New York offers,” Meeks said. “I’m not an oddsmaker, but I would guess that it’s a 50-50 chance.”
The open letter ad was paid for by the Partnership for New York City, a prominent business group, but shows how far business interests are willing to go to win back Amazon’s project that was originally split between New York and Washington D.C.’s Crystal City neighborhood.
At stake are the 25,000 jobs Amazon promised to bring with the building of the company’s HQ2, along with about $28 billion in projected tax revenue over 25 years, according to Empire State Development. Supporters of the deal have argued losing out on Amazon could mean losing out on other tech projects as well.
(more....
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-hq-2-returning-to-new-york-city-a-5050-chance-ny-congressman-meeks-132218123.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
