Amazon is breaking a central promise of HQ2 by reportedly placing it in 2 different cities

AP/Frank Franklin II

Long Island City is reportedly one of the locations that Amazon has chosen for its HQ2.

• Amazon will reportedly split its second headquarters project, known as HQ2, among two cities, both the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported on Monday.
• The two locations that Amazon is reportedly nearing a deal with are New York City's Long Island City and Northern Virginia's Crystal City, according to The New York Times.
• Splitting the headquarters into two cities breaks the whole idea of what HQ2 was intended for in the first place, which was to eventually create a second headquarters that equaled the company's operations in Seattle.

Amazon has finally found its HQ2 - and its HQ3.

The company will split its second headquarters project among two cities, both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported on Monday.

Those lucky cities will apparently be New York and Arlington, Virginia, according to The Times. The report centers on Long Island City in Queens and Crystal City in Arlington, specifically.

This is a bit of curveball. On the website it created when it first announced the project, Amazon stated that the purpose of HQ2 was to create "a full equal to our current campus in Seattle."

Read more: Amazon is reportedly splitting HQ2 into 2 cities, which would prove the whole contest was a massive sham

With two locations now reportedly splitting the promised $5 billion investment and 50,000 jobs, Amazon's initial promise rings hollow. Neither location will be anywhere close to equal to Seattle, where Amazon says it now has more than 40,000 employees and has made $3.7 billion in capital investment.

Effectively, it means Amazon won't really have a true second headquarters, which is what some critics have been claiming all along.

This may have something to do with Amazon being sensitive to criticisms that no one municipality could absorb the large impact of Amazon's HQ2 as it had been proposed. Splitting it into two could remove some objections from local leaders, but it also takes some of the luster away from the project.

Less potential downside in this case also means less potential upside. New York and Arlington will reportedly get Amazon, but they won't get HQ2. Nobody will.

Read more about Amazon's HQ2 project:

• Amazon made an important investment in Seattle, and it highlights a key issue for HQ2
• Amazon HQ2 candidates are going to great lengths to keep their plans secret
• HQ2 is making cities consider projects they've been ignoring for years - and it shows the power of Amazon
• 7 horrible things that could happen to cities if they win Amazon's HQ2 bid
• The cities where homeowners will benefit the most if Amazon's second headquarters lands there