Where is Amazon Headquarters? (Location)

Where is Amazon‘s Headquarters? An Inside Look at the Ever-Expanding Empire Powering Global Tech

When Amazon started out of Jeff Bezos‘ garage selling books online in 1994, no one could have predicted the company‘s ascendance into a dominating force steering the future of technology and commerce. Nearly 30 years later, Amazon sits at the apex of industries from cloud computing and supply chain logistics to grocery delivery and artificial intelligence. Supporting these wide-ranging enterprises is a backbone of physical operations currently spanning over 150 million square feet worldwide.

At the epicenter lies Amazon‘s dual headquarters in Seattle and Arlington, which assemble the infrastructure and talent necessary to maintain growth across regions and industries. Beyond impressive scale, examining these campuses provides unique perspective into Amazon‘s past, present and possibilities for the future.

Seattle: Where Amazon‘s Empire Was Born

Touring South Lake Union today, it seems Amazon‘s shiny high rises sprouted up as if by magic. However, it took years of expansion for the tech giant‘s Seattle headquarters to achieve its current scale. Amazon‘s presence in South Lake Union began with a single 11-story building occupying 356,000 square feet. Fast forward to present day, and the company‘s Seattle campus has swollen to occupy 81 acres spanning 37 buildings and over 12 million square feet.

From a bird‘s eye view, the dizzying growth of Amazon’s headquarters over 25 years looks like this:

To put Amazon‘s Seattle campus size into perspective, its 12+ million square feet would equivalent to 228 NFL football fields. Or in Amazon‘s native language, that‘s enough space to store 2.7 billion standard-sized books!

Driving Amazon‘s real estate domination is its constantly growing employee base. With Seattle headquarters housing over 45,000 employees currently, the city cements its status as Amazon‘s original home base. Since Amazon moved into its South Lake Union location in 2010, nearby property values skyrocketed 563% over the next decade according to Zillow data. That translates to over half a million dollars in value growth for local homeowners and builders.

Beyond impressive metrics, what makes Amazon‘s Seattle campus truly remarkable is its flourishes of innovation that reshape urban space. The crown jewel is Amazon‘s biodome trio known collectively as ‘The Spheres‘ – glass orbs filled with over 40,000 plants from the world‘s cloud forests. This rainforest-inspired workspace unveiled in 2018 functions almost like an eighth wonder of the modern world.

Down below on campus open-air walkways, food trucks supply Seattle‘s quintessential cuisines like Taiwanese bao buns and Native American frybread while coffee carts fuel employees with locally roasted beans. Luxuries like an on-site hair salon, pharmacy and dentist ensure workers need not ever leave company grounds. Still, many Amazonians frequent South Lake Union hangouts after hours or reside in nearby neighborhoods feeding economic prosperity into local businesses.

An economic impact study by ECONorthwest found that between 2010 and 2016 alone, Amazon directly or indirectly generated over $38 billion into Seattle’s local economy. This outpaces both Starbucks and Microsoft’s economic contributions during the same period. Amazon’s presence also contributed $388 million in tax revenue for Seattle in 2021—7% of the city‘s total general fund.

Beyond dollars, Amazon also gives back by volunteering over 1 million hours annually and donating to Mary’s Place family shelter located within Amazon’s Seattle campus. This community-focused foundation explains why 57% of Seattleites reported positive perceptions of Amazon’s impact locally according to a 2021 poll by Change Research.

While Seattle will always house Amazon‘s roots, the company‘s next chapter is still being written. When Jeff Bezos announced plans in 2017 to construct a second headquarters in North America, dubbed HQ2, speculation ran wild on what metro area would house Amazon‘s newest base of operations.

The Wild and Wooly HQ2 Selection Process

In September 2017, Amazon made public its intentions to open a second headquarters outside of Washington state that would eventually employ 50,000 workers. This ignition of a bidding war among cities in the U.S. and Canada became popularly known as the ‘HQ2 contest‘. Governments prepared elaborately detailed proposals highlighting tax incentives, real estate options and infrastructure upgrades that would sweeten the deal for Amazon‘s arrival.

Over 6 months, Amazon received 238 proposals from cities ranging from metropolises like Chicago and Los Angeles to smaller dark horse contenders like Tucson, Arizona. The spectrum of financial incentives proposed was equally wide-ranging. Newark, New Jersey offered $7 billion in potential tax credits and grants while Boston proposed $100 million for affordable housing projects tied to the headquarters.

Some of the most creative proposals came from locations whose identities tied closely to Amazon‘s operations. Tucson attempted to endear itself by mailing a 21-foot cactus to Jeff Bezos while Kansas City‘s mayor reviewed Amazon products in a video to showcase exceptional customer service. Despite these viral PR tactics, underdog bids ultimately didn’t stand up against better-connected cities boasting infrastructure and talent that Amazon demanded.

In January 2018, the list narrowed to 20 candidates suggested Amazon prioritized factors like tech talent pools, population density, international airport access and quality of life metrics in finalist cities. After further whittling options, Amazon formally selected two east coast locations in November 2018 – Crystal City, Virginia and Long Island City, New York. However, local political turbulence quickly terminated New York plans while Arlington, Virginia prevailed as the sole HQ2 victor.

Hello, Virginia! Amazon Makes Itself at Home in Arlington

While Amazon’s HQ2 courtship process endured ups and downs, the campus build-out in Arlington County moves full speed ahead. In 2021 alone, Amazon occupied 2.9 million square feet of office space across 22 temporary and permanent buildings in the Crystal City area. Growing at lightning pace, the Arlington campus will ultimately encompass 2.1 million square feet spread over three buildings overlooking the Potomac River and downtown D.C.

Already, Amazon’s Virginia footprint has transformed Crystal City from a faded urban office park into a buzzing technology and transit hub. Amazon‘s economic gravity is pulling both startup companies and venture capital into its orbit with The Stabelo Group estimating Arlington County‘s tech VC funding jumped 10x from 2020 ($100 million) to 2021 ($1+ billion). This population ofSUPPORT workers will only expand as Amazon fills the 25,000+ jobs promised around the Virginia headquarters.

What might be most impressive about Amazon‘s HQ2 buildout is its astronomical speed. In 2021, developers deployed the first two 22-story office towers known as Metro Tower I and Metro Tower II which already accommodate 5,000 Amazon employees combined. The third 22-story PenPlace tower will complete Virginia’s HQ2 campus with move-in ready workspaces by 2025.

Zooming out, modeling suggests Amazon‘s direct and indirect economic boost could hit $14.5 billion annually for the capital metro area. Already, state officials confirmed Amazon generated $120 million in net new tax revenue for Virginia in 2021 alone. Locals are also enthusiastic about the improvements coming through the tech titan’s presence.

“Having an exciting company like Amazon move in encouraged more young professionals and families to take a fresh look at Arlington,” said Susan Yantis, a Realtor and Arlington resident of 15 years. “The growth happening with businesses opening new offices near Amazon and infrastructure expanding around us shows this will be a long-term boon for our community.”

Amazon’s Empire Ever-Expanding

From Amazon‘s modest office building origin story in Seattle to its dual campus empire encompassing National Landing today, the company‘s physical growth epitomizes its scaling digital ambitions. AsAmazon pushes into diverse arenas from healthcare to quantum computing, it leans on headquarters hubs supplying world-class talent and facilities to underpin lightning innovation.

Within these walls and workspaces, Amazon‘s past, present and future intersect. Seattle will always ground Amazon as its birthplace and the site founder Jeff Bezos first scratched out the business plan for Earth‘s most customer-centric company. Meanwhile, Arlington‘s shiny new buildings foreshadow imminent breakthroughs whether in cloud, AI or industries still unimagined.

If its first 27 years teach us anything, Amazon still lies in infancy regarding potential and public prominence. Although predictions forecast the Everything Store evolving into the Everything Company, it‘s anyone‘s guess what these headquarters might house in another three decades. Even as it transcends geographic and sector-specific definitions, Amazon‘s enduring roots back to Seattle garages and Arlington high rises remind us that world-changing ideas start small before ascending to the clouds.