This is Why Amazon Chose Virginia for its Second Headquarters

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It was this past February that Amazon decided to suddenly pull out of a deal that would have placed its second headquarters in Long Island City, Queens.

According to CNBC’s Top States for Business study, the reason for the abrupt decision was based on data analysis and led the e-commerce giant to focusing on Northern Virginia.

Amazon used data analysis to access the quality of each state’s workforce, infrastructure and business friendliness. The CNBC Top States for Business study is an annual study that scores all states on 64 metrics across 10 categories of competitiveness, including Workforce, Cost of Doing Business, Quality of Life, Infrastructure and Economy.

The CNBC survey found that Virginia is the Top State for Business in 2019, and it offers the best workforce in the nation. Virginia also ranks No. 1 for education, tied with Massachusetts. The state also has the largest concentration of science, technology, engineering and math employees.

In May Amazon filed the initial development plans for its second headquarters in the Crystal City section of Arlington.

Amazon had figured there would be some resistance with the project in Long Island City. “That was part of the original decision to split the second headquarters among New York and [Northern Virginia], ” said Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice president for public policy.

“We received a really warm welcome from the community,” Huseman said of Virginia.

Amazon plans to limit its hiring in Virginia to 25,000 employees over 10 years. “There’s a lot of great tech talent around the country, and we have existing presence in many of those locations,” Huseman said.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) have not been compensated for this article.