Ken Weissenberg Discusses Amazon’s Second Thoughts About HQ2 in NYC

EisnerAmper’s Real Estate Practice Co-Leader Ken Weissenberg was a guest on Bloomberg Radio talking about Amazon’s abrupt about face on locating its secondary headquarters in Long Island City.

While Ken indicated that the loss of 25,000 jobs will certainly be a short-term shock to the system, the long-term prospects for the area remain strong. “We’re talking about a prime location on the East River that is also in a Qualified Opportunity Zone and is seven minutes from Manhattan by subway,” said Weissenberg.
 
The hosts then brought up the issues of the message this sends to other companies thinking about setting up shop in New York City and the need for an infrastructure that can handle a large influx of new employees.

On the former, Ken suggested that this needs to be addressed on a political level rather than a marketplace one. On the latter, Ken indicated: “We do need to refresh what is an old infrastructure. But we also have to create more affordable housing to meet the growing workforce demands.”