HQ2 may not be as big a deal as you thought. Have a confidential tip for our reporters? Let's face it, Amazon and Seattle haven't been on the best of terms for a while. After GeekWire broke the story, mayor John Chelminiak issued a statement that ended, "Welcome home, Amazon!" Amazon is offering Seattle-based employees additional choices of smaller offices outside the city. Amazon has threatened to focus employment growth outside Seattle due to a rocky relationship with city officials and new taxes imposed on big employers. The company actually halted construction on a partially built building in Rainier Square in response. Click through the slideshow above to see some reasons. Here are two cities where are a lot of people may be ticked off by Amazon's announcement: Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan says she's fine with the idea that some Amazon jobs currently in Seattle will move to Bellevue. Two years ago, Amazon helped defeat an effort in Seattle to raise money for homeless services and affordable housing by levying a per-employee tax on large businesses. They are responsible for managing the company's 175 fulfillment centers and the quarter of a million people who work in them, its Delivery Service Partners initiative, its fleet of trucks, and its fleet of airplanes. Companies across the U.S. are weighing changes to their office footprints after months of employees working from home. Amazon.com Inc. is offering Seattle-based employees a choice of smaller offices outside the city, suggesting the Covid-19 outbreak and a new local employers tax have pushed the e-commerce giant to consider alternatives to its hometown. The political climate has since shifted against the company after Amazon’s big spending on a Seattle City Council election backfired last year. Amazon got its start in the garage of a Bellevue home, severe skepticism from community leaders in Queens. Ironically, Bellevue did make a bid for HQ2 but it didn't even make the list of 20 finalists that Amazon published part way through the contest. With this move, some are now calling Bellevue the "Real HQ2." On Wednesday of this week, Geekwire published a report saying that the company plans to move its entire worldwide operations team from its Seattle headquarters in (and around) South Lake Union to Bellevue. Amazon is, once again, making a big move that feels like it's supposed to send a message to the Seattle establishment. But not everyone else is pleased. Updates with companies making office changes. Haven't received your ballot yet? Amazon … Greenwich Offices Get a Boost With Finance Looking Outside NYC. Bellevue is nearby, someplace where the company can still draw on Seattle tech talent (and maybe poach some more from its new neighbor Microsoft). The move makes a lot of sense from Amazon's point of view. It is building a second major office center in suburban Virginia near the nation’s capital and has satellite locations in cities including New York, Austin and Los Angeles. But others say the company isn't true to its word. J&J Halts Covid-19 Vaccine Trial Due to Unexplained Illness, Apple IPhone 12 5G Line Wins Praise for Lower Prices, New Sizes, Investors Turn Skeptical of Democratic ‘Blue Wave’ Victory in U.S. Expedia and T-Mobile are headquartered there, and Microsoft, headquartered in nearby Redmond, has a hefty presence. Amazon will move thousands of jobs from Seattle to nearby Bellevue, Washington over the next four years. Here's what Seattle voters... 16 scary movies based, filmed in Seattle to watch this Halloween, Neighbors frustrated with noise from homeless encampments, Study: Seattle has 5th highest cost-of-living adjusted salaries, Gang member gets 59 years for murder of teen, Coronavirus transmission, cases increasing in King County, The Latest: China carries out 4.2 million tests in Qingdao. Cities outbid each other in pursuit of HQ2, and after many months, Amazon announced a winner--sort of. Amazon, which reported a total global workforce of almost 877,000 as of June 30, has been expanding beyond Seattle for years. REI to Sell Its Never-Been-Used Headquarters Outside Seattle. Amazon was vocal in its objections--and visual. Inside sources told GeekWire that this move has been planned for more than a year, way before Amazon launched its high-profile search for a second headquarters. The message suggests Amazon could significantly shrink its presence in its hometown, where it employs about 50,000 people in a mixture of offices it owns and leases. Internet giant asked workers their nearby office preferences, Covid-19 outbreak and high taxes make hometown less appealing. Now, Bellevue will also house Amazon's worldwide operations team--the people who oversee all of Amazon's logistics. Whether you think Amazon's partial move to Bellevue is about the city, or the officials, or the head tax or what have you — remembering that the tech giant had already made plans to expand to another city well before the head tax debacle — the news still felt like a firm message from a company that had helped ensure Seattle's standing as one of the strongest economies in the country. RELATED: Things Jeff Bezos' net worth is more than. The news was announced via an email to employees this week. That left some of Seattle's leaders feeling duped. Amazon will move thousands of jobs from Seattle to nearby Bellevue, Washington over the next four years. It has been expanding for years into new locations with major new … Such locations are seen as an amenity for employees tired of commuting to Seattle and as a way to reduce the company’s exposure to the city’s taxes targeting big employers, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. The title on the message, which was shared on Reddit and later deleted, was “office workplace options.” Amazon declined to comment on the matter. In 2019, it announced it would relocate its worldwide operations division, which oversees Amazon’s shipping and logistics, to nearby Bellevue where it currently employs 3,000 people. It's considered a key group within Amazon, and some observers believe that in time it could employ about 25,000 people--as many people as the company's planned second headquarters in Northern Virginia. Facing severe skepticism from community leaders in Queens--exactly the sort of ill feeling it was facing in Seattle--the company scrapped its New York City plans. Finance firms in Manhattan have looked to New York’s suburbs for space, while Facebook has said as much as half of its employees may be working remotely in the next 10 years. If the company ever makes good on its promise to someday deliver packages by drone, this team will oversee those too. The news was announced via an email to employees this week. The move would start this year, to be completed in 2023. Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. NYC Developer Silverstein Expands West Coast Bet With Loan Deal. "Bellevue values our business community and we look forward to working with the company as their transition progresses. Seattle-headquartered Amazon announced a halt to one of its downtown construction projects prior to a vote on the tax. The building Amazon used as one of its original bargaining chips was Rainier Square Tower, the second-tallest skyscraper in Seattle. Amazon considering relocating some Seattle employees outside the city Amazon its taking steps to allow employees at its Seattle-based headquarters the … Elections, Stocks Drop After Mnuchin Remarks on Stimulus: Markets Wrap, Stocks Drop on Stimulus Deadlock as Banks Tumble: Markets Wrap. Yes, there might be a slight dip in the market, but the city has been there before (and survived worse, when our economy was more tied up in one specific company, rather than an industry). RELATED: Amazon plans to move thousands of employees to Bellevue by 2023. The city council later passed a compromise $275-per … Amazon is leaving, and Seattle feels fine, https://www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/article/Amazon-Seattle-Bellevue-business-operations-move-13742363.php, Amazon's partial move to Bellevue is about the city, Amazon plans to move thousands of employees to Bellevue by 2023, Things Jeff Bezos' net worth is more than, Lightning knocks Washington state ferry out of service, Ellen DeGeneres Seeks $40 Million for Bali-Esque Montecito Compound, Seattle named 2nd fastest-growing large city in US. Amazon has lately has a rocky relationship with Seattle, where it employs around 50,000 people. The City Council caved and repealed the tax. The truth is, Seattle is going to be fine, with or without Amazon. Amazon plans to move its worldwide operations team to its new buildings in Bellevue, which is a carefully planned and well-functioning suburban city. And yet, once the shock of "Amazon, a Bellevue company" wears off, what's left is ... nothing. The “head tax” would have raised about $47 million a year. Not surprisingly it was quickly picked up by the local tech news site GeekWire, which received confirmation of the announcement from Amazon. "The more jobs we have in the region and the more it's diversified, the better it is for all of us," she told a local TV station. But Bellevue is not as badly congested with traffic as Seattle, and its leadership is very business-friendly. That HQ2 is looking less special all the time. "We cannot be in this reactionary position to constantly respond to whether or not Amazon is going to hold true to its threat or frankly, in our case, stay true to its promises," City Council member Teresa Mosqueda told GeekWire. This is a reference to the fact that Amazon got its start in the garage of a Bellevue home. Amazon hasn't said how many jobs are moving to Bellevue but some observers believe the number could rival the 25,000 jobs promised to Northern Virginia. Amazon, which reported a total global workforce of almost 877,000 as of June 30, has been expanding beyond Seattle for years. Welcome home, Amazon," Bellevue Mayor John Chelminiak said. Last year, Seattle City Council voted in a "head tax" that would have charged Amazon and other large employers in the city $275 per year per employee, with the funds used to alleviate homelessness. Even so, having gotten what it wanted, Amazon decided it didn't need its new building after all and it's put that office space on the rental market instead. By Valerie Richardson - The Washington Times - Wednesday, July 8, 2020 Seattle city councilmember Kshama Sawant had a personal message for … In a message to employees Thursday, Amazon asked which communities near Seattle -- including Tacoma and Redmond, Washington -- they’d prefer. But unlike our city council, many in Seattle think that with or without the web's biggest retailer, Seattle will live on. In July, the council passed a new levy that will tax large businesses on employees who make at least $150,000 per year. You likely remember the highly publicized beauty contest Amazon ran last year for its second headquarters, nicknamed "HQ2." The truth is, Seattle is going to be fine, with or without Amazon. The company plans to expand its Bellevue offices, which it has had since 2017. It would still move half of HQ2 to Virginia, and spread the remaining jobs among its existing offices. Seattle has a severe shortage of affordable housing and an increasingly bad traffic problem and moving some employees to Bellevue could help ease both problems a bit while keeping the economic benefit in the same region if not the same city.

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