For weeks now, the neighborhood of Crystal City in Arlington, Va. had been reported to be among the front-runners in the search for a second headquarters site of the Seattle-based ecommerce giant, and on Tuesday, the company said it had selected Arlington and Long Island City, N.Y. as the winners of the bid process after considering pitches from over 200 cities in the U.S. and Canada.

The promise of 50,000 jobs now became 25,000 for each of the new hubs, with hiring starting as early as next year.

“We are excited to build new headquarters in New York City and Northern Virginia,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, in a company press release. “These two locations will allow us to attract world-class talent that will help us to continue inventing for customers for years to come. The team did a great job selecting these sites, and we look forward to becoming an even bigger part of these communities.”

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