New Yorkers, take note: While you commute in dilapidated and decaying subways, know that Jeff Bezos will be able to rely on a more upscale mode of transit to get to Amazon’s forthcoming New York City headquarters in Queens.
That’s because New Yorkers are buying a helipad for Bezos, the richest man in the world.
Buried in the 32-page, $1.5 billion agreement between New York’s various economic development agencies and Amazon is a promise by the city to help the company secure rights to a helipad on, “or in reasonable proximity to,” the company’s new site in Long Island City.
(Amazon’s other recently announced headquarters, in Virginia, also includes a clause for a helipad).
For its part, Amazon agreed to limit landings on the pad to no more than 120 a year, restrict it to “corporate use” only and agree to fly “exclusively over water or the Development Sites.”
In a prepared statement Tuesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to make sure the area has the transportation infrastructure it needs. Lacking additional detail, however, Queens residents should brace for the chaos sure to follow an expected 25,000 Amazon employees who will be commuting to and from the neighborhood on a regular basis.