SEATTLE — Amazon on Thursday announced plans to open Amazon HQ2, a second company headquarters in North America. Amazon expects to invest over $5 billion in construction and grow this second headquarters to include as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs. 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 is opening the Amazon HQ2 Request for Proposal (“RFP”) now, and local and state government leaders interested in learning more about how they can bring Amazon to their community can visit www.amazon.com/amazonHQ2.
Amazon estimates its investments in Seattle from 2010 through 2016 resulted in an additional $38 billion to the city’s economy – every dollar invested by Amazon in Seattle generated an additional 1.4 dollars for the city’s economy overall.
Details of Amazon’s Seattle headquarters:
| Amazon Seattle HQ | ||||
| Direct1 | Number of buildings | 33 | ||
| Square feet | 8.1 million | |||
| Local retail within Amazon headquarters | 24 restaurants/cafes + 8 other services | |||
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Amazon employees |
40,000+ | |||
| Capital investment (buildings & infrastructure) | $3.7 billion | |||
| Operational expenditures (utilities & maintenance) | $1.4 billion | |||
| Compensation to employees | $25.7 billion | |||
| Number of annual hotel nights by visiting Amazonians and guests | 233,000 (2016) | |||
| Amount paid into the city’s public transportation system as employees’ transportation benefit | $43 million | |||
| Indirect2 | Additional jobs created in the city as a result of Amazon’s direct investments | 53,000 | ||
| Additional investments in the local economy as a result of Amazon’s direct investments | $38 billion | |||
| Increase in personal income by non-Amazon employees as a result of Amazon’s direct investments | $17 billion | |||
| Other | Increase in Fortune 500 companies with engineering/R&D centers in Seattle | From 7 in 2010 to 31 in 2017 | ||
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1From 2010 (when Amazon moved its headquarters to downtown Seattle) to June 2017. |
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2From 2010-2016. Calculated using Input-Output methodology and multipliers developed by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. |
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With more than 380,000 employees worldwide, Amazon ranks #1 on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, #2 on Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies, #1 on The Harris Poll’s Corporate Reputation survey, and #2 on LinkedIn’s U.S. most desirable companies list. Amazon was also recently included in the Military Times’ Best for Vets list of companies committed to providing opportunities for military veterans.
“We expect HQ2 to be a full equal to our Seattle headquarters,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “Amazon HQ2 will bring billions of dollars in up-front and ongoing investments, and tens of thousands of high-paying jobs. We’re excited to find a second home.”
In choosing the location for HQ2, Amazon has a preference for:
- Metropolitan areas with more than one million people
- A stable and business-friendly environment
- Urban or suburban locations with the potential to attract and retain strong technical talent
- Communities that think big and creatively when considering locations and real estate options
HQ2 could be, but does not have to be:
- An urban or downtown campus
- A similar layout to Amazon’s Seattle campus
- A development-prepped site. We want to encourage states and communities to think creatively for viable real estate options, while not negatively affecting our preferred timeline.
Amazon HQ2 will be a complete headquarters for Amazon – not a satellite office. Amazon expects to hire new teams and executives in HQ2, and will also let existing senior leaders across the company decide whether to locate their teams in HQ1, HQ2 or both. The company expects that employees who are currently working in HQ1 can choose to continue working there, or they could have an opportunity to move if they would prefer to be located in HQ2.
To learn more about Amazon’s current Seattle headquarters, plans for Amazon HQ2, and to submit a proposal, visit www.amazon.com/amazonHQ2.
