Here Are The Major Cities Trying To Lure Amazon’s $5 Billion Headquarters

Amazon, one of the biggest companies in the world is opening another headquarters, and the major cities and states all over North America are out to get it. They announced this major step a little over a month ago and it was actually very public since the request for proposals was even posted online, wherein they even outlined the company’s criteria that definitely attracted some of the biggest cities, because of the generous tax incentives, as well as more than 50,000 jobs waiting for the people.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is looking for a new home for his second headquarters

THE BEGINNING

One of the biggest tech companies in the world today is Amazon or Amazon.com, Inc. they are basically an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company that was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and is currently based in Seattle, Washington. Amazon is considered to be as one of the “tech giants”, alongside Apple, Google, and Facebook. They are known to be the largest Internet-based retailer in the entire world when it comes to total sales and market capitalization.

They actually started as a bookstore, that turned into a music streaming/downloading website, that is now also selling software, video game, electronics, clothing, food, toys, and jewelry.

THE IMPACT OF THE AMAZON HQ2 ANNOUNCEMENT

Major cities all over North America are basically trying to win the heart of Amazon by bidding for it. According to the City of Houston spokesperson, Alan Bernstein, “The Amazon bid will be submitted by the Partnership under the confidentiality agreement that applies to all bidding cities,” he explained regarding the Greater Houston Partnership, which is actually a local Chamber of Commerce. “However, the city is considering a public release of a general outline of the bid, if not some specifics.”

Amazon’s $5 Billion headquarters will be in one of the major cities in North America

The Amazon management is also keeping their mouth shut but only when it comes to the information that talks about the plans during the bidding process. The Amazon statement says, “While the existence of the Project is not confidential, certain aspects of the projects and details regarding the company are confidential, proprietary, and constitute trade secrets. Amazing will deliver a Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreement for execution at the appropriate time,” the Amazon spokesperson then clarified that all of these agreements do not necessarily restrict governments from releasing information and statements regarding their bids. The deadline for the proposals was said to be this week.

According to sources, Amazon will likely won’t pick a city unless that particular city is offering an economic deal since that is one of the major requirements of the company that was mentioned in the request. According to a report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Amazon received at least $613 million from the local government subsidies so they could build warehouses because they are basically pushing for local resources that will be of course dedicated to the community development. This is of course not unusual since Amazon is one of the biggest companies and it is basically offering well-paying jobs that would help the economy.

Amazon’s original headquarters is actually in Seattle, Washington

MAJOR CITIES EYEING AMAZON HQ2

• Memphis, Tennessee

According to The Commercial Appeal, Memphis is offering $60 million to Amazon in economic incentives. On October 3rd, The Memphis City Council voted to offer the tax breaks for Amazon’s second headquarters. They also said that this may be supplemented by additional incentives from the Economic Development Growth Engine, which is a development agency in Shelby County as well as the state of Tennessee.

• Irvine, California

Irvine, California is just one of the cities in California that are trying to get Amazon. They seem to move desperately as the multi-billionaire owner of the development firm Irvine Company, Donald Bren, is actually willing to bankroll the entire construction of Amazon’s second headquarters, which can be up to $5 billion. “In essence, you would have a one-click shopping opportunity and be able to capitalize on our in-place property development rights, thus avoiding potential delays, because Irvine Company has invested more than 60 years master planning 93,000 acres of land, and designing and overseeing the creating of the largest new city in America… Irvine, California,” Bren wrote in his letter on October 12, to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

The new Amazon headquarters will offer more than 50,000 well-paying jobs.

• Newark, New Jersey

If you think $5 billion is a lot, we’ll think again, because New Jersey is definitely on their A-game. According to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, they are willing to offer the tech company tax breaks that are worth $7 billion over the next decade. According to Bloomberg, the plan would proceed economic incentives because of the proposed transformative projects.

However, experts think that this big move may actually ruin the chosen city. This is because of the traffic jams, concerned communities, and other problems. “It’s a big project, and all the large projects can be a bit of nuisance to the existing residents,” economist Mark Zandi explained. He also said that since people will most likely want to work for Amazon, it would also affect and put pressure on the local businesses in the area.