Amazon

Primed Atlanta makes Top 20 finalist list for HQ2

By Collin Kelley

Atlanta tops the finalist list – at least alphabetically – for Amazon’s second headquarters campus. The online retail giant has released a list of 20 cities competing for what has been dubbed HQ2.

Along with Atlanta, this list includes Austin, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, Montgomery County in Maryland, Nashville, Newark, New York City, Northern Virginia, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Toronto and Washington D.C.

If HQ2 were to choose metro Atlanta or Georgia, it could mean a staggering $5 billion investment and 50,000 jobs. The state and city have also offered up more than $1 billion in incentives and infrastructure improvements to sweeten the deal.

The Georgia Department of Economic Development has offered up a list of potential building sites for the 8 million square foot Amazon campus, with an area in Downtown near Philips Arena and Mercedes-Benz Stadium known as The Gulch being a top contender.

The Gulch, a below street level dead zone of parking lots, has been speculated to be the prime spot after the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported on an Oct. 30 filing with the city to develop the property. The undisclosed party filed a plan to develop 9.3 million square feet of office space, 1 million square feet of retail space, a 1,500-room hotel and 2,100 apartments at The Gulch.

A statement from Amazon said the company had received bids from 238 cities and regions across North America.

“Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough – all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity,” Holly Sullivan of Amazon Public Policy said in a media statement. “Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation.”

Amazon is expected to announce its choice for HQ2 by the end of the year.