Amazon passes over Arizona cities for second headquarters site
Jan 18, 2018, 8:14 AM | Updated: 9:30 am
(AP Photo)
(AP Photo)
PHOENIX — Online retailer Amazon has released the list of nearly two dozen contenders for its second headquarters and no city in Arizona made the cut, it was announced Thursday.
The Seattle-based corporation had started with 238 proposals from North American cities, including Phoenix, Chandler, Mesa and Tempe. The field was narrowed to 20.
“All the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity,” Amazon said in a tweet.
“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,” spokeswoman Holly Sullivan said in a statement.
The westernmost city to make the field was Los Angeles. Denver, Colorado; and Dallas and Austin in Texas, also were among the chosen.
The tech giant planned to invest at least $5 billion in construction on the site and employ as many as 50,000.
Proposals were submittedin October.
In September, when Amazon first said it was looking for another nerve center, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said the state would throw its name into the hat but that any offer of incentives must be “good for the state and good for the citizens of the state.”
Mesa Mayor John Giles told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News in October, “We can’t compete with (some of the bigger cities) dollar for dollar. We have to rely on the fact that … it makes a lot of sense from a practical perspective.”
Some of the big cities that were on the list, besides LA and Dallas, were Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Miami, New York and Philadelphia.
Cities smaller than Phoenix earning a spot included Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis and Nashville.
