The largest concentration of contenders is in the Northeast; Los Angeles is the only finalist west of the Rocky Mountains.
Amazon said it narrowed the list from 238 proposals across the United States, Canada and Mexico. It was somewhat surprising that Los Angeles made the final 20 because the company’s headquarters is in Seattle and there was speculation it might avoid setting up a second base on the West Coast.
The list includes Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Indianapolis; Los Angeles; Miami; New York; Philadelphia; Toronto; Washington; Pittsburgh; Raleigh, N.C.; Nashville; Newark, N.J.; and Columbus, Ohio. It also listed northern Virginia and Maryland’s Montgomery County — both near Washington, D.C. — as potential sites.
Amazon said that in the coming months, it would work with each finalist location “to dive deeper into their proposals, request additional information and evaluate the feasibility of a future partnership” before making a final decision later this year.
Amazon did not elaborate on why each of the 20 places made its final list.
The company announced its plan for a second headquarters in September. It said the new facility would be home to “as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs.”
The announcement immediately set off a race among cities that hoped to attract Amazon and the enormous economic benefits the facility would bring.
Among the cities that did not make the final list are Irvine and San Diego.
Irvine Mayor Donald Wagner congratulated the remaining contenders. “I particularly want to wish Los Angeles, one of the finalists, all the best,” he said in a statement.
“The entire Southern California region would benefit by the selection of Los Angeles and we offer our cooperation to Mayor [Eric] Garcetti and his team as the bids move forward,” Wagner said.
Los Angeles, which has suffered an exodus of corporate headquarters in the last two decades because of the area's relatively high business taxes and housing costs, would welcome Amazon’s presence.
“L.A. is the perfect place for a company like Amazon to find talented workers, and an environment that nurtures growth and innovation,” Garcetti said in a statement in September.
The online retailing giant’s new campus would deliver an economic boost well beyond the $5 billion in construction costs and added jobs Amazon said would stem from its “HQ2.” In addition to Amazon’s direct spending, there also would be the indirect benefit created by spawning more business for suppliers, nearby vendors and others.
When Amazon issued its request for a proposal from bidders, the company said it would give priority to areas with more than 1 million people that are within 45 minutes of an international airport.
Amazon also said it’s looking for an area that has a “highly educated labor pool” and a “strong university system.”
The e-commerce titan also made it clear that it’s looking for incentives, such as tax breaks. In its proposal request to bidders, Amazon said "the initial cost and ongoing cost of doing business are critical decision drivers” in making its selection.
One area that has disclosed its incentives is New Jersey and its city of Newark, which made the cut. Combined, the state and city are preparing to offer up to $7 billion in tax breaks and other incentives.
Los Angeles also is “going to have to play ball in that regard,” said Lloyd Greif, head of the investment bank Greif & Co. and a former chairman of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
“It’s worth reaching for the brass ring on this one,” Greif said. “Amazon is not here today and gone tomorrow. Amazon is only guaranteed to grow bigger over time.”
Amazon launched the search for its second headquarters because its Seattle headquarters, spread across 33 buildings, is brimming with 40,000 workers. The company’s remarkable growth lifted its sales to $136 billion in 2016, and it has since expanded further, acquiring Whole Foods Market Inc. last year.
“We expect HQ2 to be a full equal to our Seattle headquarters,” Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said in September.
Washington and its suburbs probably made the final list for several reasons, including that it’s “the political center of the United States,” and “for a company of Amazon’s size, policy is obviously very important,” said Adam Ozimek, senior economist at Moody’s Analytics.
“Site-selection experts also tell us that companies tend to locate where the CEO lives, and we know Bezos has a home in Washington and he owns the Washington Post,” Ozimek said.
California’s Silicon Valley, meanwhile, was shut out of consideration. Despite the region’s huge technology industry, “their costs are so extremely high” in terms of land and the cost of living, Ozimek said. “These are really, really expensive places, and that really hurt them.”
©2018 the Los Angeles Times Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
