Amazon HQ2: Philly makes Amazon’s short list for second headquarters

After months of waiting and speculation, Amazon revealed its short list of candidate cities for its second headquarters Thursday morning, and Philly made the list.

Mayor Jim Kenney issued a statement in response, saying, “Philadelphia’s inclusion in Amazon’s top 20 potential locations for HQ2 is an exciting milestone for the city. We are thrilled at today’s announcement, and look forward to working with Amazon’s team on the next steps of this process to further highlight all that Philadelphia has to offer.”

Amazon’s shortlist includes 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas—the e-commerce giant received a total of 238 proposals from cities in October. “Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough— all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity,” said Holly Sullivan of Amazon Public Policy in a statement. “Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation.”

Philly’s official bid touted the city’s affordability, talent, and livability and a list of potential sites for the e-commerce giant to set up shop, including Schuylkill Yards and uCity Square in University City and the Navy Yard.

At the press conference following Philly’s bid submission, Kenney was optimistic, saying, “We’re gonna win this.”

But the shortlist reveals that Philly has some stiff competition. Pittsburgh also made the cut, the only other city in Pennsylvania on the list. And three areas in the DC metro made the list, including Washington, Northern Virginia, and Montgomery, Maryland.

Here’s full shortlist:

• 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.

In the coming months, Amazon said it will “dive deeper” into all of the remaining candidate’s proposals and request more information from the cities. Amazon expects to make a final decision in 2018, making a $5 billion investment and bringing some 50,000 jobs to the city.