Amazon seeks bids for second North American base

Amazon.com Inc. already has a sprawling Seattle headquarters that attests to its size and ambition. Now the world’s largest online retailer plans to open a second North American campus — dubbed HQ2 — that Amazon says could be just as big as the existing one.

The company is asking local and state governments, including ones in Canada, to submit proposals for a development that will likely cost more than US$5 billion over the next 15 to 17 years and give the winning city or town a huge economic boost. Amazon is already one of the biggest employers in Seattle and expects the new headquarters to house as many as 50,000 workers, many of them new hires.

Cities have until next month to apply through a special website, and the company said it will make a final decision next year.

Amazon recently moved into a new 500-foot-tall office tower in Seattle, complete with 100-foottall orbs — Amazon calls them Biospheres — which will host more than 300 plant species from around the world when they open in 2018. The rest of the campus covers several city blocks.

Cities and local governments are expected to compete fiercely for the opportunity to become Amazon’s new base.

For the new campus, Amazon said it’s looking for metropolitan areas with more than one million people — locations with the potential to attract and retain technical talent. Amazon said it would consider a suburban location.