New York offered Amazon nearly $1 billion more in tax credits than previously known for its HQ2 deal

• Last February, Amazon called off its HQ2 deal in the Queens borough of New York City after tension with lawmakers and politicians who criticized the deal.
• The Wall Street Journal recently obtained corporate documents and reported that New York officials initially offered Amazon $800 million more in tax credits than its 2018 signed agreement.
• In 2017, the tech giant's HQ2 contest announcement brought in more than 200 proposals from city officials eager to offer billions of dollars in tax breaks.
• Amazon's second headquarters in northern Virginia is set to break ground in early 2020, reports CNBC. The company will be introducing two 22-story buildings, a 2.1 million-square-foot space, and 25,000 jobs over the next decade.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

It's been nearly 11 months since Amazon called off plans to build a second headquarters in the borough of Queens in New York City.

The Wall Street Journal recently obtained corporate documents and reported that New York officials originally proposed $1.4 billion of tax credits and $1.1 billion in grants to the tech giant - that's $800 million more than the signed agreement in 2018 before Bezos pulled the deal.

Amazon's highly publicized announcement for HQ2 triggered about 238 proposals nationwide, in which city officials were so eager to win the contest that they were offering billions of dollars in tax breaks, Business Insider reported. The company promised to house 50,000 jobs to its winner, and it got a trove of valuable data from applications in exchange.

Stacy Mitchell, director of the Institute of Local Self-Reliance, previously told Business Insider that Amazon's strategy to obtain data through the HQ2 hunt aids its future expansion.

"Amazon has a godlike view of what's happening in digital commerce, and now cities have helped give it an inside look at what's happening in terms of land use and development across the US," she said. "[It] will put that data to prodigious use in the coming years to expand its empire."

Bezos' trillion-dollar company took its time evaluating prospects and eventually announced a split in its $5 billion investment divided between North Virginia and Long Island City, New York, Business Insider reported. However, Amazon decided last February to cancel its New York project due to tension with lawmakers and politicians who criticized the deal.

Nevertheless, Amazon's second headquarters in northern Virginia is set to break ground in early 2020, reports CNBC. With an approved $23 million incentive package, the tech giant will be introducing two 22-story buildings, a 2.1 million-square-foot space, and 25,000 jobs over the next decade.