Amazon, today, released a list of 20 cities that will proceed to the next step in the HQ2 selection process. The finalists were selected from a pool of 238 applicants vying for the 50,000 jobs and tens of billions of dollars of additional investment in the surrounding community that Amazon's second headquarters will create.
The final list has an abundance of eastern and Midwestern cities with Austin, Dallas, Denver, and Los Angeles being the only finalists west of the Mississippi. Toronto is the sole Canadian representative on the list while none of the proposals from Mexico made the cut. A full list of the 20 finalists can be seen below.
Over the next few months, Amazon will work with each of the candidate locations to explore their proposals more deeply and request more information as necessary. Amazon says it will invest over $5 billion into the construction of HQ2 and construction and operation of the facility will create tens of thousands of jobs in addition to Amazon’s direct hiring.
Amazon expects to make its final decision at some point in 2018. The list of the 20 finalists includes:
- Boston
- New York City
- Newark
- Pittsburgh
- Philadelphia
- Montgomery County (Maryland)
- Washington, D.C.
- Raleigh
- Northern Virginia
- Atlanta
- Miami
- Toronto
- Columbus
- Indianapolis
- Chicago
- Denver
- Nashville
- Los Angeles
- Dallas
- Austin
UPDATE
Amazon's new HQ2 campus is being split across two cities, according to The Wall Street Journal. The article says Amazon has balked at the idea of finding 50,000 qualified employees (mainly top tech talent) in one city, and will isntead split HQ2 evenly into two projects in two separate cities. Finalist cities that may be awarded one of the two Amazon headquarters include Dallas, New York City, and Crystal City, Va.
As the cities have not even been announced yet, there are currently no designs for the projects, but it can be expected the e-commerce giant will follow trends of other large company headquarters recently constructed and put employee wellness and sustainability at the forefront of the design. Key features such as green space, roof gardens, and large windows with abundant natural daylight can be expected (while taking care to avoid the embarrassing problem Apple encounted in its new headquarters).
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