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Cites Desperate to Become the Location of Amazon's "Second Headquarters"
Cities Dream Of Landing Amazon's New HQ And They're Going To Great Lengths To Show It [npr.org]
Officials in Tucson, Ariz., uprooted a 21-foot-tall saguaro cactus and tried to have it delivered to Amazon's Seattle headquarters. Birmingham constructed giant Amazon boxes and placed them around the Alabama city. In Missouri, Kansas City's mayor bought a thousand items online from Amazon and posted reviews of each one.
All of these cities are clearly trying hard to get Amazon's attention. Why? Because they know that otherwise, they don't stand a chance against some big-name cities that are all trying to win the contest to land Amazon's second headquarters.
The retail giant announced a month ago that it has plans for a second home outside of Seattle, where it is currently headquartered. The project has been named HQ2 [amazon.com], and the deadline for final bids is Thursday. Amazon has promised to invest $5 billion and said the facility will create as many as 50,000 jobs.
It has led to a mad scramble from cities across the nation and even in Canada. And various publications have analyzed cities' chances [nytimes.com] of landing this deal. Atlanta, Denver and Pittsburgh have made it to a few of those lists.
Many cities don't really figure as finalists on any of those lists. But that hasn't stopped them. In fact, just like Tucson or Birmingham, cities are pulling out all the stops to get noticed.
The Amazonk Prometheans may be coming to your city...
Previously: Amazon Spheres Add to Seattle's Quirky Architecture [soylentnews.org]
Amazon Acquires Whole Foods for $13.7 Billion [soylentnews.org]
Amazon to Invest $5 Billion in Second HQ Outside of Seattle [soylentnews.org]
Amazon Looks to New Food Technology for Home Delivery [soylentnews.org]
