---
title: After years of building pricey playgrounds, Big Tech recalibrates
description: Major building plans are on pause, but banana stands are a go.
---

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# [After years of building pricey playgrounds, Big Tech recalibrates](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/after-years-of-building-pricey-playgrounds-big-tech-recalibrates)

 Written by [Jacob Cohen](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/author/jacob-cohen) | Jun 24, 2023 12:00:16 AM

Anyone else remember when cities were desperately pitching Amazon on why they should be home to the company’s second headquarters?

Tucson [hauled](https://www.geekwire.com/2017/tucson-sends-21-foot-tall-cactus-jeff-bezos-message-amazon-can-grow-arizona/) a 21-foot saguaro cactus to Amazon’s Seattle HQ. Kansas City’s mayor [wrote](https://fb.watch/ljY4XRoLoN/) 1k Amazon reviews. NYC lit the Empire State Building [orange](https://twitter.com/EmpireStateBldg/status/1062474855793283072). Heck, Stonecrest, Georgia, [offered](https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/3/16413866/new-amazon-headquarters-stonecrest-georgia-bid) to change its name to Amazon.

But it was the bustling metro of Arlington, Virginia, that ultimately received the package: a [$2.5B](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/20/amazon-hq2-is-not-matching-original-hype-economy-is-partly-to-blame.html) site — opened last week — that will employ 25k people by 2030.

#### **Pumping the breaks**

Amazon’s** **original HQ2 vision promised a $5B complex and 50k employees. The company, which cut ~27k corporate roles this year, has since scaled back, reducing the budget by half and pausing to break ground on a second phase.

It’s not the only tech firm that has reevaluated recent real estate moves amid widespread layoffs and an uncertain economy:

- **Meta**, which in recent years spent [$1B+](https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/facebooks-west-campus-construction-costs-exceed-1-billion/) on a Frank Gehry-designed Menlo Park campus and bought REI’s Seattle-area headquarters for [~$368m](https://www.geekwire.com/2020/facebook-buys-reis-new-hq-367m-expanding-seattle-area-footprint-3m-square-feet/), has eliminated 21k jobs since November, given up leases in NYC, and weathered [billions](https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-office-space-employees-remote-work-from-home-zuckerberg-2022-10) in consolidation-related costs.
- **Google**, which invested [$9.5B](https://blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/investing-america-2022/) in US offices and data centers last year and has been keen on the return to office, announced 12k layoffs in January and paused construction of an 80-acre San Jose campus.

The good news, if you like bananas: Amazon’s new Arlington site comes equipped with a free [banana stand](https://www.businessinsider.com/why-amazon-gives-away-free-bananas-stand-headquarters-2023-6), an idea concocted by Bezos himself.

[View full post](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/after-years-of-building-pricey-playgrounds-big-tech-recalibrates)

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