Amazon quietly visits HQ2 prospects
Toronto’s rivals include Boston, Austin, Atlanta, New York, Indianapolis
While 20 North American cities watch Seattle-based Amazon for any sign of favour, Amazon officials are quietly visiting those cities, including Toronto, sizing up their headquarters hosting potential.
Mayor John Tory recently told reporters that Amazon’s research on the only Canadian contender in the 20-city battle to host the company’s “HQ2” second headquarters is limited to a “very, very narrow circle of people” mostly at the Toronto Global inter-governmental agency co-ordinating the regional bid.
Amazon officials are “visiting the cities, and they’re not doing it with a lot of fanfare,” Tory said. “They’re visiting the cities that are on the shortlist and they are asking for more details of the things that were contained in the bid books and they’re going about a very methodical process of making their selection.”
The hush around this phase of the Olympic bid-style process is by design. The 19 U.S. contenders, which include Boston, Austin, New York, Atlanta and Indianapolis, and Toronto have all signed secrecy agreements. The prospect of up to 5,000 new jobs and $5 billion (U.S.) in investments, plus the myriad of spinoff benefits from the booming online conglomerate, is keeping a virtual cone of silence firmly in place. What is known is what stopped some cities from making the top-20 list, thanks to feedback they got from the decision-makers. Amazon told Cincinnati economic development officials their city didn’t have enough software developers, computer programmers and other tech specialists to be a HQ2 finalist, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
“Talent was the most important factor out of everything they looked at,” Ed Loyd, a spokesperson the agency that co-ordinated that city’s bid, told the newspaper.
Toronto Global will only say that its discussions with Amazon go beyond the 185-page bid book released last fall that trumpets the region’s wealth of tech talent, cultural diversity, cosmopolitan culture and more.
“We’re still working away at providing Amazon with the detailed information that flows from our bid book and that they have requested of all 20 shortlisted cities,” said Toronto Global’s Erika Thompson. “The positive thing, from our perspective, is that we actually have a number of new things to add, since the bid book was submitted, to further bolster Toronto Region’s appeal as a virtually unmatched engine for high-quality talent and people.” They include Ryerson DMZ ranked as a top universitybased tech incubator; Toronto “listed as having the most cranes in North America, demonstrating the pace of development and growth in the Toronto region”; and another recordbreaking year for tourism. Amazon has given no firm timetable for an announcement, only that it expects to name a winning city sometime in 2018. Meanwhile, people are trying to read the high-tech tea leaves.
Toronto is a long shot at winning this particular sweepstakes, according to Paddy Power.
The odds-on favourites, according to the Dublin-based bookmaker, are Atlanta, Austin and Boston.