Amazon picks NYC and Northern Virginia for its split "HQ2" - source

By David Shepardson

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc plans to announce on Tuesday that it has selected New York and Northern Virginia as locations for its second headquarters, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.

In the announcement, that could come as early as Tuesday morning, Amazon will announce a significant investment in one additional city, the source said.

The decision would bring to an end a more-than-year-long contest that started with 238 candidates and ended with a surprise split of its "HQ2".

The company was planning to split its second headquarters, dubbed "HQ2", evenly between two cities, and among the finalists that Amazon was holding advanced talks with were Dallas, Long Island City in New York and Arlington near Washington, D.C., Reuters reported last week, citing sources.

Amazon sparked a bidding frenzy in September 2017 when it announced it would invest over $5 billion to create an "HQ2" in addition to its home base in Seattle and hire up to 50,000 people.

Cities and states promised billions of dollars of tax breaks and other inducements in exchange for Amazon's "HQ2". They also handed over infrastructure, labor and other data that could prove useful in other ways to the world's largest online retailer.

The Wall Street Journal reported Amazon's proposed plans earlier on Monday.

The New York Times had also reported last week that Amazon was finalizing plans to select the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, New York and the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Sunil Nair)