Amazon said in its announcement that it wants to choose the location of its second headquarters -- HQ2 -- through a public process in order to find the place where customers, employees and the community all benefit. Proposals are due by October 19, 2017, and metropolitan statistical area, state or provinces, counties, cities and other localities can submit, according to the Amazon RFP.
Proposals may contain multiple real estate sites in more than one jurisdiction.
For Amazon HQ2, the company said over the next 15 years it will hire as many as 50,000 new full-time employees with an average annual total compensation exceeding $100,000.
We’re excited to find a second home,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO.
The company plans to invest $5 billion in the project. On the website announcement, the Amazon RFP is presented as a more than $6 billion per year opportunity for the winning metro region. Between 2010 and 2016, the city of Seattle’s economy benefited by $38 billion.
Every dollar invested by Amazon in Seattle generated an additional $1.40 for the city’s economy overall.”
Amazon also paid about $43 million to King County Metro through 2017 for employee transit benefits.
Amazon RFP Must-Haves:
- Metropolitan areas with more than one million people
- A stable and business-friendly environment
- Urban or suburban locations with the potential to attract and retain strong tech talent (ideally, be within 30 miles of population centers)
- Communities that think big and creatively when considering locations and real estate options, but must work within the RFP’s stated timeline
- Public transportation must be available at the site, access to major arteries and highways must be within 1-2 miles and an international airport should ideally be within a 45-minute reach
- 500,000 square feet of space, initially, with up to 8,000,000 square feet needed within 10 years
- Optimal fiber connectivity and diverse and strong wireless service coverages
What Amazon RFP Proposals Do Not Have to Be:
- An urban or downtown campus
- A similar layout to Amazon’s Seattle campus
- A development-prepped site
