Amazon announces final 20 cities in the running for second headquarters

Officials with technology giant Amazon on Thursday announced that the company has narrowed down its list of possible sites for its second headquarters to 20 metropolitan areas.

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The company said it got nearly 240 proposals from across the U.S. Canada and Mexico.

"All the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity," Holly Sullivan, with Amazon Public Policy. "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."

The following metropolitan areas are still in the running for Amazon's second headquarters:

• Atlanta, Georgia
• Austin, Texas
• Boston, Massachusetts
• Chicago, Illinois
• Columbus, Ohio
• Dallas, Texas
• Denver, Colorado
• Indianapolis, Indiana
• Los Angeles, California
• Miami, Florida
• Montgomery County, Maryland
• Nashville, Tennessee
• Newark, New Jersey
• New York City, New York
• Northern Virginia, Virginia
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Raleigh, North Carolina
• Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Washington D.C.

Amazon employees will spend the next several months diving into the remaining proposals. Company officials said Amazon’s decision will come this year.

Amazon is headquartered in Seattle, but the company announced in September 2017 that it was seeking proposals to build its second headquarters somewhere in North America.

Amazon officials said the company plans to invest $5 billion in its second headquarters, which will bring as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs to whichever metropolitan area it gets built in.

"In addition to Amazon's direct hiring and investment, construction and ongoing operation of Amazon HQ2 is expected to create tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the surrounding community," Amazon employees said in a news release.

Cox Media Group