County Unveils Amazon Incentive Deal, Sketching Out How Company Can Earn $23 Million in Grants

[nitpicker]

https://www.arlnow.com/2019/03/05/county-unveils-amazon-incentive-deal-sketching-out-how-company-can-earn-23-million-in-grants/

County Unveils Amazon Incentive Deal, Sketching Out How Company Can Earn $23 Million in Grants

by Alex Koma — March 5, 2019 at 3:45 pm

Arlington officials have, at last, unveiled a detailed version of the county’s proposed incentive package designed to bring Amazon to the county. A draft copy of the county’s “Economic Development Incentive Grant Agreement” posted online for the first time today (Tuesday) sketches out the exact amount of office space Amazon will need to occupy in Arlington in order to win $23 million in incentive cash over the next 15 years.

The agreement also reveals additional details about how the county plans to work with the company to add infrastructure improvements in the Crystal City and Pentagon City neighborhoods, which Amazon hopes to soon call home, and lays out the procedure for either side canceling the incentive arrangement.
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Under the terms of the proposed deal, Amazon will need to lease 60,000 square feet of space in the county by June 30, 2020 to start qualifying for the cash. Arlington plans to draw the money from an expected increase in revenue from a tax on hotel stays, with Amazon’s arrival projected to juice hotel tax revenues in the area.

That office space occupancy target jumps to more than 567,000 square feet by 2021, and regularly creeps upward from there. By 2026, when the company expects to have new buildings built near Metropolitan Park in Pentagon City, Amazon will need to occupy about 1.8 million square feet of space. By 2028, when its new buildings at the former “PenPlace” site are set to be ready, it will need to hit a 2.69 million-square-foot target.
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[Delmette2.0]

1. Why?

Why do local communities. (Cities and Counties) do so much to financially help corporations worth billions?
I understand the employment opportunities, I understand relaxing zoning.

I don't understand grants and tax breaks for the corporation, especially when the corporation is getting tax breaks on the Federal level.

The community will have expenses for roads, water and sewer not only for the corporate building, but also for the new homes that eventually will be added. That doesn't include additional law enforcement, fire departments, schools, health and human services.