Virginia Struggled to Build a Startup Hub, So It Recruited Amazon Instead
Arlington hoped to attract a flurry of small businesses to revive a faltering economy. Was Jeff Bezos the missing piece?
Three years ago, Arlington, Virginia, was pitching itself as the next Silicon Valley. Victor Hoskins, the county’s director of economic development, tried to lure entrepreneurs with cash prizes, free housing, office space and other incentives. Few showed up. Last week, after a courtship lasting more than a year, Arlington landed the opposite of a startup: half of a second headquarters for Amazon.com Inc.
Amazon’s arrival looks like a panacea for Arlington’s economy, which has been hurt by the flight of defense industry jobs. Amazon says it will hire more than 25,000 people and spend about $2.5 billion in the area. Hoskins also helped negotiate a bargain compared with Amazon’s other pick. New York City agreed to pay almost double in tax incentives and infrastructure improvements per job. Amazon’s target for the workforce in Arlington is an average wage of more than $150,000. “It’s transforming how businesses think about the county,” Hoskins says.