Cities jockey for position as Amazon HQ2 search narrows
SAN FRANCISCO – The finish line is in sight. Amazon has completed the visits it has been making to the 20 cities winnowed from the initial 238 that wanted to be home to the Seattle company’s second headquarters.
Cities are eager to get on to the enormous financial windfall the prize will bring. But expect more hurdles before the race is over, observers say.
One round, and perhaps even two, of finalists are likely, said Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that promotes economic accountability in development deals.
Amazon used “incentive” 21 times in its original request for proposals in September 2017, LeRoy notes, indicating it’s likely to push for even better tax breaks and economic incentives from the finalists. And when Amazon announced in January the 20 cities it had chosen for more intensive looks, it called them “candidates,” not “finalists.”
Amazon would not comment on the prospects of a second round.
Amazon says it will bring 50,000 high-tech jobs and spend $5 billion on construction to the second headquarters. Dubbed “HQ2,” it will be a “full equal“to its original Seattle home.
Those new Amazon employees will in turn create as many as 250,000 indirect jobs, according to the calculations of Enrico Moretti, an economics professor at the University of California-Berkeley.
❚ The top five plus one: So far the three Washington D.C.-area spots, along with Austin, Boston and Atlanta, rank high among analysts speculating on the winners. Toronto is the wild card.
Being near the federal government might be strategic, especially with President Trump in attack-mode against Amazon. He has tweeted multiple times the company doesn’t pay its fair share of taxes and is underpaying for shipping with the U.S. Postal Service, an arrangement he called a “scam.”
Trump has also been railing against The Washington Post, which Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns.
Amazon is already hiring near the nation’s capital — and Boston. The Conference Board, an economic think tank, analyzed job postings in the 20 metro area candidates and found that in terms of the kinds of jobs Amazon hires for in Seattle, the D.C. area and Boston were
fastest growing in terms of technical staffers.
Many lump the three Greater Washington candidates — the District itself, Northern Virginia and Montgomery County, Md. — together. But they are different in some ways. One is that while D.C. and Maryland have laws in place protecting gay rights, Virginia does not.
Amazon’s request for proposals doesn’t mention the LGBTQ community but does include a section saying it requires “a compatible cultural and community environment” that includes “the presence and support of a diverse population.”
Boston gets the nod because of its deep pool of technical talent as well as excellent MBA programs.
Two Texas towns, Dallas and Austin, made the top 20. But Dallas is seen as sprawling, with bad traffic (a clear no-no in Amazon’s list of must-haves) and a very different cultural vibe than what Amazon currently has.
Atlanta is in the mix both because of its strong regional ties, good universities and overall business friendliness.
❚ The Canadian conundrum: Toronto, the only nonU.S. city on the list, is an outlier with significant pluses but also drawbacks, both related to President Trump.
On the one hand, the U.S.’ increasingly hard stance on immigration is making it tougher for companies to bring in top talent. Locating in Toronto would sidestep those problems.
On the other hand, locating in Toronto could be seen as an attack on Trump, who has made increasing U.S. jobs — especially those that had been moved to other countries — a cornerstone of his platform.
Amazon says it will bring 50,000 high-tech jobs and spend $5B on construction to the second headquarters.