Andrew Cuomo Speaks With Jeff Bezos, Hints of ‘Other Ways’ to Clear Path for Amazon’s Return
WRITTEN BY J. David Goodman
PUBLISHED ON FEBRUARY 28, 2019
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who was staggered by Amazon’s decision to pull out of its plans to come to New York City, is working intensely behind the scenes to lure the company back, even connecting with Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, to make a personal pitch.
The governor has had multiple phone conversations with Amazon executives, including Mr. Bezos, over the past two weeks, according to two people with knowledge of the efforts. In those calls, Mr. Cuomo said he would navigate the company through the byzantine governmental process.
Mr. Cuomo did not offer a new location but rather guarantees of support for the project, one person said. Amazon executives gave no sense the company would reconsider.
The governor on Friday confirmed his efforts during a radio interview, and suggested, without elaborating, that he told Amazon that there were “other ways that the state can get it done” that might bypass some of the deal’s more vocal opponents.
The push to get Amazon to reconsider also included an open letter that ran as a full-page ad in The New York Times on Friday, urging Mr. Bezos, the company’s chief executive, to reverse course and build the campus in Long Island City, Queens.
[Latest update: After Cuomo’s calls to Amazon, a flurry of conversations to rally support.]
The letter was signed by more than 70 supportive unions including the AFL-CIO, local businesses and business leaders, community groups and elected officials including Representatives Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn, a top Democrat, Max Rose, a first-term Democrat from Staten Island, and Carolyn Maloney, whose district encompasses the Amazon site, and the former mayor David N. Dinkins.
The letter said that Mr. Cuomo “will take personal responsibility for the project’s state approval,” and Mayor Bill de Blasio “will work together with the governor to manage the community development process.”
So far at least, the company has shown no sign of reconsidering its decision to abandon the deal, in which Amazon promised to create up to 40,000 jobs in Long Island City in exchange for a state grant of $500 million and state and city tax breaks that would have eventually totaled more than $2 billion...
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