Though Amazon said it won’t begin hiring for its newly announced office in Queens, N.Y. until 2019, condo sales in the neighborhood are already booming.
For example, one Long Island City brokerage firm said it sold 150 units in just four days, The Wall Street Journal reports.
It’s only been a week since Amazon revealed plans for the New York office and another in Arlington, Va. The two cities offered the company billions of dollars in tax incentives in an effort to get the high-paying jobs that come with the Amazon expansions.
Just before news broke of the new headquarters’ location, two Amazon employees reportedly beat the rush and bought units in New Jersey and Queens, The Wall Street Journal reports. Lawyers told the paper that they’re not aware of any broken laws associated with employees making real-estate transactions based on nonpublic information.
And if Seattle is any indicator, Amazon isn’t done stirring things up in local real estate.
Owners of office buildings, apartments, industrial space, and strip malls have all seen a doubling in prices of their assets since 2010, higher than the 66% average increase in the 50 largest cities, the paper reported. Amazon and its related business created one in three jobs in Seattle and the median income has grown 32% over the past eight years, The Wall Street Journal reported.
