Amazon named Miami one of 20 finalists on Thursday to house the tech giant’s second headquarters, HQ2, according to an announcement made by City of Miami Major Francis Suárez. Tampa and St. Petersburg did not make the cut.
We are very excited that @CityofMiami made it to the list of cities being considered for @amazon’s HQ2! #Miami’s business-friendly environment and our highly-skilled, multilingual workers are ready for #AmazonHQ2. https://t.co/YCzhwN6AVb
— Mayor Francis Suarez (@FrancisSuarez) January 18, 2018
The company narrowed down the list of cities from 238 proposals. It’s considered a major win: Amazon plans to invest $5 billion in constructing HQ2 and to bring 50,000 jobs at an average salary of $100,000.
The gist of Amazon's final 20 locations for HQ2: hello Midwest, East Coast and South. Sorry, West Coast (except L.A.)
— Nick Wingfield (@nickwingfield) January 18, 2018
Our story: https://t.co/r9kih1iK5L pic.twitter.com/SfVt0zxGJZ
Economic development teams from the South Florida area collaborated to prepare a proposal due last September. They considered access to universities and community colleges, technology companies and transportation, most notably the Brightline high-speed train service, which launched last weekend.
The proposal listed five potential sites in Miami, two sites in Fort Lauderdale and one site in West Palm Beach. South Florida is the only region in the state to be named a finalist. Amazon expects to make a decision in 2018.
The details of South Florida’s proposal haven’t been revealed. According to The Miami Herald, Miami-Dade hasn’t responded to requests to make the application public.
Miami's selection as a Top 20 finalist by Amazon is a bit of a shocker, per one source helping w/ the bid. The New York Times Amazon beat writer called it "unexpected"
— Doug Hanks (@doug_hanks) January 18, 2018
Amazon requested cities submitting proposals meet certain criteria. The headquarters will open in a metropolitan area with more than one million people; forward-thinking communities that can be both suburban and urban; and the potential for incentive packages.
Amazon’s footprint can already be felt in parts of South Florida. The company plans to build an 885,000-square-foot fulfillment center at Opa-Locka Airport and bring about 1,000 full-time jobs to South Florida. It also opened a 50,000-square-foot Prime Now processing hub in Wynwood for delivering groceries and other items to Amazon Prime members, the Sun Sentinel reported.
The complete list of finalists:
- Atlanta, Ga.
- Austin, Texas
- Boston, Mass.
- Chicago, Ill.
- Columbus, Ohio
- Dallas, Texas
- Denver, Colo.
- Indianapolis, Ind.
- Los Angeles, Calif.
- Miami, Fla.
- Montgomery County, Md.
- Nashville, Tenn.
- Newark, N.J.
- New York City, N.Y.
- Northern Virginia, Va.
- Philadelphia, Pa.
- Pittsburgh, Pa.
- Raleigh, N.C.
- Toronto, Canada
- Washington D.C.
