CRUNCH TIME
What Amazon wants for its new HQ
WASHINGTON » Just 20 cities are left standing in the competition for Amazon’s second headquarters and the 50,000 jobs it will bring.
Now comes the hard part for the finalists — and for Amazon. Based on the cities that made the cut, and what the company told some of the cities that didn’t, the company will likely scrutinize six key criteria when making its final call. It plans to announce its decision later this year.
The 20 cities include Austin, Texas; Atlanta; Boston; New York City; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and Nashville, Tennessee. Here’s what’s important: TALENT, TALENT, TALENT Among all of Amazon’s needs, high-skilled workers are at the top of the list. The company has ventured far beyond retail and shipping into cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence, robotics, drones and voice recognition for its home speaker, the Echo.
That’s likely to give a leg up to cities that already have large tech sectors, such as Boston, New York, Washington D.C. and Raleigh, North Carolina, all of which were on Amazon’s list.
“They’re going to want to see that in the current workforce, but will also want a community that can come together and marshal that in short order,” said Alan Berube, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Project. That means strong relationships between area businesses, community colleges and universities.
Amazon executives bluntly told officials from Kansas City, Missouri, that the region’s lack of highlyskilled technology workers cost it a spot on the final list, according to Tim Cowden, CEO of the Kansas City Area Development Council. SIZE MATTERS The state of Connecticut applied for HQ2, including proposals for Hartford and Stamford. But it was told the cities weren’t big enough.
“We received positive feedback from Amazon officials, but at the end of the day did not have a large enough metropolitan area for this particular proposal,” Governor Dannel Malloy said.
Smaller cities on the list, such as Raleigh, Nashville and Indianapolis might be challenged by the sheer size of Amazon’s expected needs. Nine of the nation’s 10 largest metros are on Amazon’s list.
“Even among the largest places on the list, the market for tech workers would be transformed by the new demand for 50,000 workers,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed, a job listing website.
Denver, Pittsburgh, Austin, Indianapolis, Nashville, Raleigh and Columbus, Ohio — all among the top 20 — all have populations smaller than Seattle’s roughly 3.8 million. That could make it harder for those areas to provide enough top-notch technical, managerial and financial talent. QUALITY OF LIFE Not all those 50,000 workers have to be located right now in whatever site Amazon chooses. The company said its 50,000 hires will occur over 10 to 15 years, and it clearly expects to pull in talent from elsewhere. Amazon says it wants a city with amenities that its future employees will want to move to.
That includes everything from bike lanes to fast Internet and mobile phone connections to “recreational opportunities,” according to Amazon’s request for proposals.
That could help Nashville, with its music scene, or Denver, with its proximity to the Rocky Mountains. But it could also benefit cities with cheaper housing and lower overall costs, such as Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Philadelphia.
“The thing that will attract people more than anything else is an engaging job at a high wage, especially if their high wages aren’t eaten up by high housing costs,” Kolko said. HIGHER ED To ensure a supply of highly-skilled labor in the future, Amazon said in its request for proposals that “a strong university system is required.”
Most cities on the list can fulfill that demand, Berube and other economists said, with the possible exception of Indianapolis.