Amazon has a wish list for new HQ
Some things can be quantified, others are less tangible
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 Chicago, Austin, Texas; Atlanta; Boston; New York; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and Nashville, Tenn.
Here’s what’s important:
Amazon executives bluntly told officials from Kansas City, Mo., 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. 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.
Chicago, 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. 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. with the possible exception of Indianapolis.
Columbus is the home of Ohio State, while Nashville has Vanderbilt. Chicago has the University of Chicago, among others. Pittsburgh boasts Carnegie Mellon, which houses leading programs on artificial intelligence and robotics.
One thing Indianapolis does have going for it, Berube noted, is that city residents recently approved an additional tax to pump millions of dollars into buses and light rail. Most of the other finalists have extensive public transit systems, said Tom Stringer, a managing director at BDO Consulting, who leads the firm’s site-selection practice.
A large, international airport within 45 minutes is also critical. That could be a roadblock for smaller cities such as Columbus, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh.
It won’t all depend on objective criteria, to be sure. Newark may very well have landed on the list at least partly because it and the state of New Jersey offered $7 billion in tax breaks and other incentives.
“They’re not a half-trillion dollar company for nothing, and they are going to see what they can extract,” Berube said.
That might inflict pain in the Washington, D.C., region, which has three locations on the list: The city of Washington itself, suburban Montgomery County, Md., and Northern Virginia, a collection of counties to the south of the city. The company could play all three off each other, Berube said.
Toronto, the only city outside the United States to make the cutoff, has said it won’t offer tax breaks or other subsidies.