Amazon HQ2 Finalist cities announced

[Curt Riffel]

The finalists, named by the company are Toronto, Columbus, Indianapolis, Chicago, Denver, Nashville, Los Angeles, Dallas, Austin, Boston, New York City, Newark, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Montgomery County, Washington, D.C., Raleigh, Northern Virginia, Atlanta, and Miami.

“In the coming months, Amazon will work with each of the candidate locations to dive deeper into their proposals, request additional information, and evaluate the feasibility of a future partnership that can accommodate the company’s hiring plans as well as benefit its employees and the local community. Amazon expects to make a decision in 2018,” the company says in a news release.

[Roy N.]

Originally posted by @Oren K.:

More like a list of qualified bidders. Each has a legitimate case to make as a base of operations and 'enticements' that Amazon can squeeze.

When they get down to 5 or better yet 3, then you are talking about finalists.

One thing going for Toronto as the only Canadian city (much as I would love it and am skeptical at the same time) on the list is that both the provincial and the federal government can help in crafting the their proposal.

Oren

Having worked in the software world for 3-decades - for both the very large and the very small - I'm not convinced that having three levels of government swooning sizeable concessions - or, if you prefer, 'enticements' - to something the size of Amazon will yield anywhere near the economic and intellectual property benefits as investing a similar amount in cultivating home-grown innovation.