Amazon reveals short list of 20 cities for its next headquarters

Jan 18 2018, 10:37 pm

As soon as Amazon announced it was looking for a new North American headquarters, Toronto made headlines as a top contender.

Toronto was one of 238 cities bidding for Amazon’s new HQ2. In Canada, bids were received from Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Sault Ste. Marie, Windsor, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, Toronto, and even Langford – a suburb of Victoria.

And now, Amazon has narrowed its short list down to just 20 cities, and Toronto is one of them.

“Today we are announcing the communities that will proceed to the next step in the HQ2 process,” said Amazon in a tweet. “Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough – all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity.”

Amazon

Chicago, LA, Dallas, New York City, and Boston, among others, are all up against Toronto.

Amazon HQ2 will be Amazon’s second headquarters in North America, and the company expects to invest over $5 billion in construction and grow this second headquarters to include as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs.

“We are excited to have this opportunity and to be able to tell Toronto’s unique story,” said Toronto Mayor John Tory in a statement.  “There is no other city region in North America that can boast the same talent, the same quality of life, the same vibrancy and economic strength.”

Tory said he is glad that Amazon agrees that Toronto is worth considering.

“I look forward to working with Toronto Global and my fellow GTA mayors and regional chairs as we continue to go through the bidding process over the coming months. I will continue to do whatever I can to bring good secure jobs to Toronto. They are crucial to our ongoing success,” he said.

In the fall, Toronto Global submitted an official 185-page bid to the online giant, which explored how the innovative and thriving city is ready to be the next home of what Amazon has coined “HQ2”.

A month after the bids were submitted, Toronto was announced as Canada’s best chance at landing the much-coveted second global headquarters, according to a ranking by Sperling’s Best Places.

Following today’s announcement, Amazon says it will work with each of the candidate locations to dive deeper into their proposals in the coming months.

They expect to make a final decision sometime in 2018.

20 cities short listed for Amazon HQ2

  • Atlanta
  • Austin
  • Boston
  • Chicago
  • Columbus
  • Dallas
  • Denver
  • Indianapolis
  • Los Angeles
  • Miami
  • Montgomery Country
  • Nashville
  • Newark
  • New York City
  • Northern Virginia
  • Philadelphia
  • Pittsburgh
  • Raleigh
  • Toronto
  • Washington DC
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