In this Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018, photo, pedestrians walk the underground corridors in Crystal City, Va. If any place in the U.S. is well positioned to absorb 25,000 Amazon jobs, it may well be Crystal City, which has lost nearly that many jobs over the last 15 years. The community wedged between the nation’s capital, Reagan National Airport and the Pentagon, has abundant infrastructure, including rail transit and available commercial space. (AP Photo/Matthew Barakat) 
This Friday, Nov. 9, 2018, photo shows a view of Washington from a revolving restaurant in Crystal City, Va. If any place in the U.S. is well positioned to absorb 25,000 Amazon jobs, it may well be Crystal City which has lost nearly that many jobs over the last 15 years. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) 
This Friday, Nov. 9, 2018, photo shows a view of Crystal City, Va., and the United States Air Force Memorial as seen from a revolving restaurant. If any place in the U.S. is well positioned to absorb 25,000 Amazon jobs, it may well be Crystal City which has lost nearly that many jobs over the last 15 years. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) 
In this Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018, photo, the Long Island City waterfront and skyline are shown in the Queens borough of New York. One of the areas that Amazon is considering for a headquarters is Long Island City. An old manufacturing area, it’s cultivating a new image as a hub for 21st-century industry, creativity, and urbane living. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) 
In this Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018, photo, people walk past a mural in Long Island City in the Queens borough of New York. Across the East River from midtown Manhattan, Long Island City is a longtime industrial and transportation hub that has become a fast-growing neighborhood of riverfront high-rises and redeveloped warehouses, with an enduring industrial foothold and burgeoning arts and tech scenes. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) 
In this Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018, photo, a rusting ferryboat is docked next to an aging industrial warehouse on Long Island City’s Anable Basin in the Queens borough of New York. Across the East River is midtown Manhattan, top left. Long Island City is a longtime industrial and transportation hub that has become a fast-growing neighborhood of riverfront high-rises and redeveloped warehouses, with an enduring industrial foothold and burgeoning arts and tech scenes. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) 
In this Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018, photo, traffic moves along 44th Drive in Long Island City, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018, in the Queens borough of New York. Long Island City is a longtime industrial and transportation hub that has become a fast-growing neighborhood of riverfront high-rises and redeveloped warehouses, with an enduring industrial foothold and burgeoning arts and tech scenes. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) 
In this Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018, photo, a construction crane is perched on the site of Court Square City View Tower adjacent to the Court Square Number 7 subway station in Long Island City in the Queens borough of New York. When complete, the 963-foot residential tower will house 774 apartments. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
RICHMOND, Va. | Amazon will split its second headquarters between Long Island City in New York and Crystal City in northern Virginia, according to a person familiar with the plans.
The online retailer is expected to make an official announcement later Tuesday. The person was not authorized to speak publicly ahead of that announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity. Amazon has declined to comment.
The decision would end an intense competition between North American cities to win Amazon and its promise of 50,000 new jobs. Some locations tried to stand out with stunts, but Amazon made clear that it really wanted incentives, like tax breaks and grants. The company received 238 proposals before narrowing the list to 20 in January.
Long Island City and Crystal City would meet Amazon’s other requirements: be near a metropolitan area with more than a million people; be within 45 minutes of an international airport; have direct access to mass transit; and have room to expand. Amazon also wants to able to attract top technical talent and be able to expand the headquarters.
Rapidly growing Long Island City, in the borough of Queens, is an old manufacturing area where warehouses are being replaced with apartment-filled glass towers.
And Crystal City, across from the nation’s capital, is made up of 1980s-era office towers. The area is trying to revive itself after thousands of federal jobs moved elsewhere.
In setting off the flurry of interest, Amazon said it could spend more than $5 billion to build its second headquarters over the next 17 years.
But splitting the second headquarters between Long Island City and Crystal City would beg the question of whether the new locations would be headquarters at all. It’s unclear where Amazon’s executives — such as CEO and founder Jeff Bezos — would spend much of their time. If each location gets 25,000 jobs, that would make it smaller than Seattle’s, which houses more than 40,000 workers.
Nonetheless, the extra space will help the rapidly growing company . Launched in 1995 as an online bookstore, Amazon now produces movies, makes voice-activated Echo devices, runs the Whole Foods grocery chain, offers online services to businesses and designs its own brands of furniture, clothing and diapers.
Amazon’s employee total has ballooned to more than 610,000 worldwide, and that’s expected to increase as it builds more warehouses across the country to keep up with online orders. The company recently announced that it would pay all its workers at least $15 an hour, but the employees at its second headquarters will be paid a lot more — Amazon says they’ll make an average of more than $100,000 a year.
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Pisani reported from New York.