https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/13/17977814/amazon-hq2-queens-arlington-us-locations

Amazon has announced that its second US headquarters will be split between two cities, with smaller-than-expected offices in the New York City borough of Queens and the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia. The announcement caps a year of deliberations that saw over 200 frenzied proposals offering billions in incentives to the e-commerce giant. Amazon has said that the previously promised 50,000 jobs and $5 billion of capital spending will be split equally between the two locations.

The choice for the Long Island City, Queens neighborhood and Washington, DC suburb has some calling the so-called contest a con job since Amazon already employs more people in those two areas than anywhere outside of its Seattle HQ and the Bay Area. In other words, the ruse of uprooting operations probably helped Amazon extract more favorable tax subsidies and incentives from local governments. News of the possibility that Amazon would choose multiple locations was first reported by The Wall Street Journal in early November.