Amazon has announced the shortlist of cities that could host its second North American headquarters, known as HQ2. The company received 238 proposals from locations across the region. It’s now narrowed the list to a total of 20 cities, including Toronto.
Technical talent
Toronto is the only location outside the U.S. to have made it to the shortlist. Amazon opened the application process last September, giving cities across North America the opportunity to support up to 50,000 high-paying jobs.
It will be a complete second headquarters for the company, providing extensive economic growth opportunities to the successful candidate city. Amazon will invest over $5 billion as it develops the facility.
Toronto is the only Canadian location to have made it to the shortlist. Canada is establishing itself as a leader in several areas of emerging technology, including artificial intelligence. Amazon is likely to have retained Toronto as an option because of the availability of technical talent around the city. The arrival of the company would further boost the already thriving Canadian tech scene.
Amazon’s original requirements for HQ2 stipulated it must be built near a metropolitan region of over one million people with availability of technical talent. The company also wished to have direct access to commuter transit and an airport not more than 45 minutes away. Toronto has evidently satisfied these first requirements but it will now be in competition with urban areas across the U.S.
“Enthusiasm and creativity”
The other 19 shortlisted cities are distributed across the U.S., including locations on the east and west coasts. Pennsylvania is the only state that features twice on the list, with both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh potential candidates. Across the country, cities including Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City and two regions in the vicinity of Washington, DC have made it through the first stage of Amazon’s application process.
The company thanked all 238 initial applicants for their interest, saying they showed “tremendous enthusiasm.” It evaluated every proposal it received based on predefined criteria. Amazon will now work more closely with the 20 shortlisted cities to obtain detailed information on their proposals. It needs to establish whether the community can feasibly support the scale of its building and hiring ambitions.
“Thank you to all 238 communities that submitted proposals. Getting from 238 to 20 was very though – all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity,” said Holly Sullivan, Amazon Public Policy. “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.”
Amazon’s currently headquartered in Seattle with regional satellite offices across the globe. The company employs over 540,000 people globally and has invested $100 billion in its infrastructure over the past five years. Amazon said it expects to conclude the competition to host HQ2 during 2018.
