Amazon To Begin Sifting Through Hundreds of Bids

Amazon must feel like the prettiest girl at school right now, as they now have the task of sifting through 238 proposals to host the company's 2nd headquarters.

Earlier this year, Amazon, which is one of the world's most valuable companies, said that it was looking to build a second headquarters somewhere in North America. Amazon estimates that building the headquarters will cost them $5 billion. The company has promised that they will bring up to 50,000 well-paying jobs into the area that they finally decide upon.

The stakes are obviously very high, as Amazon's second headquarters will bring a tremendous amount of money and jobs. This is why many cities across North America added any number of promises to their bids, including tax breaks and the choice of prime real estate locations.

Amazon was obviously well aware that the bidding would be fierce, and they threw gasoline on the bidding process by making it so public.

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Some of the cities who are thought to be leading contenders to land the second Amazon headquarters include Austin, Texas and New York City. There is a thought that Amazon will want to locate their second HQ across the continent from Seattle, Washington (home of their primary headquarters), which might give a boost to some of the east coast bids.

Geographic locations will certainly be a big factor in determining the winner, though tax breaks, real estate availability and infrastructure will also be important considerations. The company reportedly received proposals from locations in Canada, the United States and Mexico - Toronto, Ontario, Canada is also seen as a leading possibility, with bids from Mexican locations seen as having longer odds of winning.

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I would imagine that there will be multiple rounds in the whittling down process, with Amazon imploring cities to submit their absolute best bids every time.

In the end, Amazon is doing a great job of pulling all of the strings in this process, and they should end up with an absolutely phenomenal deal as a result.

Filed under: General Knowledge