Hub’s shot at Amazon ‘pretty good,’ mogul says

Billionaire real estate investor Barry Sternlicht handicapped Amazon’s HQ2 race yesterday, saying Boston has a “pretty good shot” at the winning bid for the Seattle tech giant’s second headquarters.

“Boston has a pretty good shot at that, given that it’s far away, and the technology and infrastructure and the educational base — and just the zeitgeist of the city,” Sternlicht told Bloomberg Television.

Sternlicht is the chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group, a Greenwich, Conn.-based private investment firm that has about $62 billion in assets under management.

Amazon has received 238 proposals from 54 states, provinces and districts in the U.S., Canada and Mexico interested in landing its estimated $5 billion second headquarters and up to 50,000 jobs, the company disclosed Monday. The Bay State’s bid includes 26 sites, with Suffolk Downs in East Boston being promoted as the top location in the Hub.

Amazon creates “so much demand, and cities are so excited to have them,” Sternlicht said.

Cities in the southeast, including Raleigh and Durham, N.C. — two of the anchor cities of Research Triangle Park, the high-tech research and development park — and Atlanta, also stand a good chance of landing Amazon’s HQ2, according to Sternlicht. Those cities have good industry and technology bases, and Atlanta is affordable and a transportation hub, Sternlicht said during an interview at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Sternlicht’s Starwood recently bought the top six floors of Macy’s Inc.’s building in downtown Seattle and has leased the space to Amazon, which will open offices above the store.