Amazon recently announced their shortlist of top 20 city candidates for their new second headquarters dubbed HQ2. They have been reviewing proposals over the last several months and as of this morning released the list of potential candidates, one of which just so happens to be Los Angeles. The shortlist (of 238 original applicants) consists of the following cities:

1. Atlanta, GA
2. Austin, TX
3. Boston, MA
4. Chicago, IL
5. Columbus, OH
6. Dallas, TX
7. Denver, CO
8. Indianapolis, IN
9. Los Angeles, CA (Yayyyyy!!)
10. Miami, FL
11. Montgomery County, MD
12. Nashville, TN
13. Newark, NJ
14. New York City, NY
15. Northern Virginia, VA
16. Philadelphia, PA
17. Pittsburgh, PA
18. Raleigh, NC
19. Toronto, ON
20. Washington D.C.

The next step in the process now moves on to the submission phase which includes further proposal evaluation and working directly with each of the respective candidate cities on obtaining more information. Amazon has maintained it will make its final decision sometime in 2018. Amazon has also made clear that this is in fact a true second HQ and not just simply a sizeable satellite office. This new HQ2 will include $5 billion in investment from Amazon itself, with the potential to support as many as 50,000 high-profile and high-paying jobs. The criteria included a metropolitan area with a population of greater than one million and the ability to attract and keep strong technical talent. Many were shocked at the rejection of the applications of such cities as Detroit, Phoenix and San Diego. And while Amazon did in fact receive bids from regions in Mexico, they narrowed its finalists to just American locations and one city in Canada, which was Toronto.

Where do think Amazon will ultimately land???