Amazon on Thursday announced that it has chosen 20 metropolitan areas as candidates for the location of its second headquarters. Denver is among them.
A total of 238 areas submitted bids to become the home of the "complete headquarters," which will join Seattle as the company's base of operations. The 20 finalists span from Los Angeles to Miami and up to Toronto. They include many of the largest metros in the U.S. and Canada.
Denver is one of four candidates west of the Mississippi River, alongside Los Angeles, Austin and Dallas. Interestingly, there are three sites around Washington D.C. alone.
Amazon claims that it will invest more than $5 billion and bring up to "50,000 high-paying jobs" to whatever city is chosen. The idea has spurred excitement but also has raised questions in Denver and beyond. Many people have asked, "Can our city handle this?"
The next step will be for Amazon to "work with each of the candidate locations to dive deeper into their proposals, request additional information, and evaluate the feasibility of a future partnership that can accommodate the company’s hiring plans as well as benefit its employees and the local community," the company declared.
As we reported previously, Colorado's proposal focused on the number of skilled and talented people who live in the state. It's unclear what amount of incentives the state offered.
Amazon expects to make its decision in 2018.
