Amazon picks New York City, Arlington for new headquarters

NEW YORK, Nov. 13 -- Amazon has chosen New York City and Arlington in Northern Virginia as the locations for its new headquarters, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

The online retail giant will invest 5 billion US dollars and create more than 50,000 jobs across the two new locations, with more than 25,000 employees each in New York City and Arlington, according to the statement.

The New York City headquarters will be located in the Long Island City neighborhood in Queens, and the new Washington, D.C. metro headquarters in Arlington will be located in National Landing, the company said.

The company added that hiring at both the new headquarters will begin next year and that the average salary for new employees in the areas will be more than 150,000 dollars.

"These two locations will allow us to attract world-class talent that will help us to continue inventing for customers for years to come," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.

Local governments in both locations have offered the company generous incentives.

Amazon will receive performance-based direct incentives of 1.53 billion dollars based on the company creating 25,000 jobs in Long Island City. The incentives will include a refundable tax credit of up to 1.2 billion dollars and a cash grant of 325 million dollars.

In Arlington, the company will receive performance-based direct incentives of 573 million dollars, also based on the company creating 25,000 jobs.

In the statement, Amazon also announced a third investment in downtown Nashville, Tennessee where it will build a new operations center of excellence. The new facility is expected to create 5,000 jobs.

Amazon began searching for a second headquarters in North America in September of last year. In January this year, 20 finalists were sifted out from a total of 238 bids.

During the search, the company prioritized metropolitan areas with over 1 million people and a stable, business-friendly environment.

Shares of Amazon rose more than 1 percent to trade at 1,654 dollars apiece in early trading on Tuesday.