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Amazon set hearts in Maryland and across the country aflutter with its announcement Thursday that it was ditching plans to build a new headquarters in New York.
The news prompted Gov. Larry Hogan to say the state was reopening its discussions with Amazon.
Montgomery County had made the list of finalists to land the coveted East Coast headquarters, but Baltimore’s bid had been cast aside earlier in the process.
“We actually have had preliminary discussions with (Amazon) already and look forward to meeting with them to discuss it further,” Hogan told reporters. “I don’t know how aware we were of it ahead of time, but we know that they made the decision not to move forward with New York.”
But the online retail giant Thursday appeared to douse hopes from cities and states that had conducted a furious bidding war only to be passed over for the company’s East Coast headquarters. Amazon said it does not plan to look for another location, and will continue to build out offices in Arlington, Virginia, and Nashville, Tennessee.
Last week, Marc Weller, president and founding partner of Weller Development Co., said his team will again try to lure Amazon to Baltimore. His firm is the lead developer of the $5.5 billion redevelopment of Port Covington. The waterfront property on the south Baltimore peninsula served as the centerpiece of Baltimore’s failed bid to land Amazon.
Port Covington developers are now focused on putting together a major cybersecurity hub at the site.
After the ballyhooed announcement last year that New York and northern Virginia were the big winners, Amazon faced opposition from some New York politicians unhappy with the nearly $3 billion in tax incentives the online retailer was promised. The Seattle-based Amazon had planned to bring 25,000 jobs to New York, and spend $2.5 billion building its offices.
“We are disappointed to have reached this conclusion — we love New York,” the company said in a blog post, adding that it has 5,000 workers in the city and plans to grow those teams.
