Culture / Newsy

Is Amazon’s New World Headquarters Headed to Texas?

Surprise Tech Mecca Makes a Major Push to Land the Coveted Giant

BY // 09.08.17

Will Amazon build a new headquarters in Dallas? Mayor Mike Rawlings certainly hopes so — and he’s all in on making it happen.

The Seattle-based retail giant announced Thursday that it’s searching for a location to build a second home, starting a fierce competition between prospective cities, including Dallas.

Amazon’s secondary headquarters will be a full equal to the current campus in Seattle, meaning one lucky city will be getting up to 50,000 high-paying jobs. The company plans to invest more than $5 million in construction of the headquarters, known as Amazon HQ2.

In addition to Amazon’s direct hiring and investment, HQ2 is expected to create tens thousands of additional jobs and billions of dollars of investment in the surrounding area. The company estimates that its investments in Seattle over a six year period brought an additional $38 billion to the local economy.

Cities must meet a few requirements to be seriously considered as an option. Amazon specified that it’s searching for a metro area with more than one million people, a stable and business-friendly environment, strong talent in the tech field, a international airport and a strong university system.

Dallas hits all of those checkmarks (it recently was ranked one of the most high-tech cities in the world) — and Amazon already has some strong Texas ties. The company is in the process of building its ninth and 10th fulfillment centers in North Texas, it recently purchased Austin-based Whole Foods, and it has a massive wind farm in West Texas.

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Rawlings was quick to express his interest in luring the company to DFW.

He promised, “We will aggressively demonstrate that Dallas and our surrounding area would be the perfect spot for [its] expansive business needs,” in a statement.

The Amazon Competition

Dallas is one of dozens of cities eager to jump at the opportunity. Boston, Washington D.C., Pittsburgh, Denver, Toronto and others also put themselves in the running.

Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto took to Twitter, simply posting “On it,” with a link to Amazon’s announcement.

To gauge the competition, The Washington Post made a map of 39 North American cities that fit Amazon’s wishlist for HQ2’s location. And yes, Dallas made the cut.

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