Crystal Landing Strip is just the spice Arlington needs. |
| Does anyone else feel like Amazon made out like a bandit? The company probably always planned on expanding operations to New York and DC area. By styling it as an open beauty contest for a second headquarters (which it wound up not being), Amazon got some incredible give aways it would never have otherwise ($2 billion worth). |
| Well, now I’m glad Montgomery county didn’t get it. We would be renaming White Flint / Rockville/North Bethesda to national landing . |
Because White Flint has such a nice ring to it?
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+500 It was settled the second Bezos bought his DC house. Now, he can live out his dream of being this century’s Kay Graham with huge tax incentives to boot. Very smart. |
Um...this. !! http://www.acpsk12.org/news/?p=11234 |
Yup. It's pretty lame / sneaky they wasted the time and money of 20 other cities |
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VA is spending around 23,000 in incentives per job, that must average 150k a year per agreement.
VA will make that back in state income taxes alone in 4-5 years. The infrastructure upgrades are separate and frankly needed. I consider it a huge win that NOVA is getting the state to dump that much money back into the area, as opposed to spending in the rear of VA |
This. Plus, the Amazon hoopla brought DC and MD back to the table to agree on funding infrastructure for Metro. This is a win for all of this region's residents. In sum: 25K jobs at an average of $150K each. This creates $200m+ annually in tax revenues for VA, MD, and DC. VA gave $575m in direct incentives Another $223m was promised for infrastructure investment (which was always needed regardless of Amazon's arrival) We got a way better deal than NYC. I think VA's negotiators knew Bezos was coming here hell-or-highwater and low-ball AMZN. Plus, I don't think Bezos ever truly considered DC because of the lack of Congressional representation. So VA was only really in competition with MD. Bravo, VA. Sincerely, DC Resident |
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https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/amazon-hq2s-50000-jobs-will-cost-new-york-virginia-4-2-billion-181611603.html
Arlington taxpayers are on the hook, and Amazon will be making big $ out of this deal.
Also, the decision had little to do with taxes, and more to do with location, per the article. |
I saw that already and it would be great if the city could be transparent and forthcoming by writing press releases in layman’s terms and plain english for the average Alexandria tax payer to understand. I have absolutely no idea what Alexandria is getting, concretely what it means and I’m not an idiot. Using fancy PR phrases doesn’t tell me anything. So frustrating . |
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Alexandria (Oakville Triangle) will be getting the VA Tech center, which is huge. It also means a kick in the pants to get the Potomac Yard station built, more money for schools (both Arlington and Alexandria will have to build more schools), VA Tech itself might form some sort of partnership with the Alexandria schools to help it FINALLY improve itself, which will help the entire region. One of the reasons Alexandria's housing prices lag Arlington is because of the poor schools. This also spurs the North Old Town improvements, and the power plant redevelopment, the Braddock Road metro area redevelopment. Everything trickles down. I also would not be surprised if one day Rte 1 through Old Town goes underground to quickly get traffic to 495. It would be super expensive, yes, but I think one day we will see it. And Old Town is left being a pedestrian-friendly totally walkable oasis. |
Crystal City Restaurant, where the special is the New York strip. NEVER FORGET! |
| I'm surprised they didn't just call it Amazon City |