Nashville is among a list of top 20 cities under consideration for a new Amazon headquarters, the business announced Thursday.
"Today we are announcing the communities that will proceed to the next step in the HQ2 process," Amazon tweeted. "Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough – all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity"
According to the company's website, Amazon HQ2 will be Amazon’s second headquarters in North America.
"We expect to invest over $5 billion in construction and grow this second headquarters to include as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs – it will be a full equal to our current campus in Seattle," a statement on the company's website says. "In addition to Amazon’s direct hiring and investment, construction and ongoing operation of Amazon HQ2 is expected to create tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the surrounding community."
Shortly after the announcement, Nashville Mayor Megan Barry expressed her excitement about in the news on Twitter.
"Over the coming weeks and months, we look forward to working more closely with @amazon to show them why Music City would be the perfect fit for their company," she tweeted.
The pool of cities competing to secure the second campus includes:
- Atlanta, GA
- Austin, TX
- Boston, MA
- Chicago, IL
- Columbus, OH
- Dallas, TX
- Denver, CO
- Indianapolis, IN
- Los Angeles, CA
- Miami, FL
- Montgomery County, MD
- Nashville, TN
- Newark, NJ
- New York City, NY
- Northern Virginia, VA
- Philadelphia, PA
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Raleigh, NC
- Toronto, ON
- Washington D.C.
Amazon announced its search for a second, but equal, headquarters in September. Its requirements, laid out in a request for proposals, included that the winner be a metropolitan area with more than 1 million people, have a "stable and business-friendly environment," and be in "urban or suburban locations with the potential to attract and retain strong technical talent." At least 238 cities and regions in the United States and Canada applied.
"Thank you to all 238 communities that submitted proposals. Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough — all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity," said Holly Sullivan, Amazon Public Policy.
Amazon will now work with each of the candidate locations to dive deeper into their proposals, request additional information, and evaluate the feasibility of a future partnership, the company said. It expects to make a final decision in 2018.
