Thursday, September 7, 2017

Amazon Seeks Second HQ: Are Salt Lake, Denver, Phoenix On List?

Seattle-based e-commerce giant Amazon.com--having exceeded its ability to expand in Seattle--said Thursday morning that it has started soliciting proposals from cities for a second headquarters city, which it calls "Amazon HQ2". According to Amazon, it is looking to establish a "full equal" to its current Seattle headquarters, where it could hire as many as 50,000 employees, complete with an equal number of company executives. Amazon said its is looking for metropolitan areas with more than one million people; a stable and business-friendly environment; urban or suburban locations with potential to attract and retain strong technical talent; and communities that can "think big and creatively" when considering locations and real estate options. Those parameters appears to match Denver, Salt Lake City, and Phoenix, three of the region's cities which have been extremely popular with Silicon Valley and other technology companies looking for expansion. All three cities have a large, educated population; active educational institutions churning out raw talent; an existing technology industry; plentiful possibilities for headquarters locations; and an appeal to potential employees.