ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Gov. Larry Hogan says his administration has had preliminary discussions with Amazon, and he looks forward to meeting with the company again about potentially expanding to Maryland.
Hogan was asked at a news conference Thursday about the company's new headquarters, after Amazon announced it has abandoned plans for a big new headquarters in New York that would have brought 25,000 jobs to the city.
Maryland's Montgomery County was one of the company's finalists for the new headquarters.
Developers of Port Covington in Baltimore recently expressed interest again in trying to attract the company. Port Covington was not a finalist.
Amazon says it doesn't plan to look for another headquarters now and will continue with its plans to build new offices in Arlington, Virginia, and Nashville, Tennessee.
No Change Expected for Arlington
NEW YORK (AP) - Arlington, Virginia, doesn't expect its plans to build a new Amazon headquarters to change, even though Amazon has scuttled a plan to build a headquarters in New York.
After a yearlong search for second headquarters, Amazon announced in November that it would split its new headquarters between New York and Arlington, with both getting 25,000 jobs.
Arlington County Board Chairman Christian Dorsey said county officials spoke with Amazon earlier Thursday.
He said nothing has changed from Arlington's perspective, noting that the company's deal with Virginia always included a provision that would allow Amazon to bring up to 37,850 jobs over the next 20 years. Amazon said Thursday that it wasn't looking to replace New York at this time, but planned to continue hiring in other offices around the country and Canada.
Dorsey said the county would be able to accommodate that many Amazon jobs in its Crystal City neighborhood, and that county planners had long anticipated that kind of influx, whether from a single company like Amazon or a host of companies. The neighborhood, which is adjacent to the Pentagon, lost tens of thousands of government jobs a decade ago under a realignment of military facilities.
"We are moving forward as we had planned," Dorsey said. "Nothing has changed."
