Toronto loses bid to host Amazon’s second headquarters

Amazon will be spreading its vast expansion plans over multiple North American locations, but confirmed on Tuesday that it will not be calling Canada home. The retail behemoth announced that its coveted second headquarters, popularly dubbed HQ2, will be divided between New York City and Arlington, Va. The announcement puts an end to Toronto’s hopes of hosting the massive expansion, which promised to bring 50,000 jobs to the region where the headquarters are built.

The joint bid from Toronto and surrounding municipalities was among dozens from Canadian cities eager to court Amazon, but the only one to make the company’s shortlist of 20 final contenders.

The mayor of Markham, Ont., one of the municipalities involved in Toronto’s pitch, said making that final round of competition represented a victory even if the ultimate prize proved elusive. “Toronto Region being shortlisted for #AmazonHQ2 is an incredible achievement,” Frank Scarpitti wrote on Twitter. “It shows the strength of our region and our diverse talent. Our reputation as an innovation hub is growing.”

Toronto’s bid, which billed the city and surrounding municipalities as a culturally diverse, safe and affordable hub for potential corporate growth, met many of the criteria Amazon laid out when announcing plans for a second headquarters.

The company had indicated it wanted to locate near a metropolitan area with more than a million people; be able to attract top technical talent; be within 45 minutes of an international airport; have direct access to mass transit; and be able to expand that headquarters to more than 740,000 square metres in the next decade.

Newly re-elected mayor John Tory emerged as a strong supporter of the city’s bid, touting Toronto as a “global centre of innovation and technology.” “There is no other region in North America that can boast the same talent, the same quality of life, the same vibrancy and economic strength,” Tory said in September. “We made that point to Amazon in our pitch and in person when they visited us here.” In the end, however, the company opted to spread its resources more widely.