SEATTLE — Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has chosen the following 20 metropolitan areas (in alphabetical order) as potential locations for HQ2, the company’s planned $5 billion second headquarters in North America:
– Atlanta
– Austin, Texas
– Boston
– Chicago
– Columbus, Ohio
– Dallas
– Denver
– Indianapolis
– Los Angeles
– Miami
– Montgomery County, Md.
– Nashville, Tenn.
– Newark, N.J.
– New York City
– Northern Virginia
– Philadelphia
– Pittsburgh
– Raleigh, N.C.
– Toronto
– Washington, D.C.
“Thank you to all 238 communities that submitted proposals. Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough — all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity,” says Amazon spokesperson Holly Sullivan. “Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation.”
In the coming months, Amazon will work with each of the candidate locations to dive deeper into their proposals, request additional information and evaluate the feasibility of a future partnership that can accommodate the company’s hiring plans, as well as benefit its employees and the local community. Amazon expects to make a decision this year.
Amazon has emphasized that HQ2 will be a complete headquarters for the company, not a satellite office. The company plans to grow this second headquarters to accommodate as many as 50,000 jobs. Construction and ongoing operation of Amazon HQ2 is expected to create tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the surrounding community, according to the company.
Seattle-based Amazon has more than 540,000 employees worldwide. Over the past five years, Amazon has invested more than $100 billion in the United States alone, including corporate offices, development and research centers, fulfillment infrastructure and compensation to its teams.
The company’s stock price closed on Wednesday, Jan. 17 at $1,293.95 per share, up from $807.48 per share one year ago.
— John Nelson