North America’s biggest and brightest cities are about to get their charm on.
Online commerce giant Amazon is looking for a second home to back up its headquarters in Seattle. Unlike most expansion efforts, the e-commerce giant has opened itself up to public courtship from cities that desire its presence.
This unorthodox approach to expansion may seem off-putting, but it is actually a very effective approach to finding a second home that will be a major boon for the lucky city.
Few businesses have quite the influence as Amazon. With that in mind, very few need a second headquarters.
According to a New York Times report, the company has a very specific set of criteria potential suitors would have to fulfill. Among those criteria are a metropolitan population larger than 1 million, on-site access to mass transportation, an airport with direct flights to their HQ in Seattle, and a diverse and business-friendly community. Extra consideration will be given to the strength of local universities and business incentives from city legislatures.
There are a variety of front runners around North America, including tech hubs like Austin, Dallas, and Boston. All of these cities will have to make serious concessions to attract Amazon, including substantial tax breaks or incentives that may draw the ire of some residents. Seattle’s denizens have certainly grown tired of Amazon’s immense influence in the city, as the tech giant owns more than 19 percent of all office space in the city and has had glaring effects on the rising cost of living within the city.
Jonah Baker | Argonaut
However, these cities need Amazon. The bidding-style process that will determine their new home will be setting a standard for future courtships between gargantuan business entities and cities that desperately want influxes of thousands of quality jobs. In the case of this proposed second headquarters, Amazon intends to bring about 50,000 quality jobs to a major city. That kind of opportunity does not come often, and the benefits of such a partnership would be a career-defining move for the leaders of whichever city is declared the winner.
The company and their future home will be able to learn from the mistakes that were made in Amazon’s breakneck expansion throughout Seattle in order to ensure that their new home will not have as many negative effects.
According to the Seattle Times, Seattle is already looking at raising taxes for the $250,000 to $500,000 earning bracket of the population, which has experienced marked growth correlating with Amazon’s rise in the area. Similar adjustments can be made in future cities to make sure that Amazon does not place undue burden on the population to cancel out the momentous financial windfall it would produce.
Cities will be hard pressed to find a substitute for a company like Amazon, that intends to dominate every facet of consumerism. Upon acquiring Whole Foods earlier this year, Amazon now has a substantial stake in grocery shopping as well as streaming video and online commerce. Per one Forbes report, 64 percent of American households have at least an Amazon Prime account. Add in the additional revenue from Whole Foods, and there is quite simply too much room for growth to ignore Amazon’s future.
There are very few occasions when fully-fledged cities should make special accommodations to attract one particular business. Amazon, however, is the exception to just about every rule and should be treated as such here. An approximated 50,000 jobs supplying livelihoods to a dying middle class and a taxable upper class is enough to make any city council salivate.
Amazon has essentially announced that it will personally jumpstart an entire city’s economy, as long as they are met in the middle. Any city capable of meeting their requests would be wise to oblige.
Jonah Baker can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jonahpbaker