Having received proposals from 238 suitors, including a Bay Area Council-led bid which combined Concord, Fremont, Oakland, Richmond and San Francisco, Amazon has just released its short-list of 20 cities that are still in the running to land the behemoth’s second North American headquarters, a full equal to their current campus in Seattle, dubbed “HQ2.”
The 20 cities moving on the second round, which doesn’t include the aforementioned Bay Area coalition:
- Atlanta, GA
- Austin, TX
- Boston, MA
- Chicago, IL
- Columbus, OH
- Dallas, TX
- Denver, CO
- Indianapolis, IN
- Los Angeles, CA
- Miami, FL
- Montgomery County, MD
- Nashville, TN
- Newark, NJ
- New York City, NY
- Northern Virginia, VA
- Philadelphia, PA
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Raleigh, NC
- Toronto, ON
- Washington D.C.
A key criteria for the $5 billion development is “the potential to attract and retain strong technical talent” and Amazon is planning to announce a winner by the end of this year.