Business Operations
12 HQ2 Numbers that Made Every North American City Hyperventilate
To the victor go these spoils in the competition for Amazon's second headquarters.
By John Levesque November 8, 2017
When Amazon announced in September that it would like to clone its Seattle headquarters complex in another North American city, creating what Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos calls HQ2, every mayor and economic development director in metro areas with populations of at least 1 million started hyperventilating.
Heres what Amazon says a new headquarters city could look forward to, based on Amazons impact in Seattle from 2010 through 2016.
40,000+: Amazon employees
33: Number of new buildings
32: Restaurants, cafes and other services in Amazon buildings
8.1M: Square feet of office space
$3.7B: Capital investment (buildings and infrastructure)
$1.4B: Operational expenditures (utilities and maintenance)
233,000: Hotel nights by visiting Amazonians and guests (2016 only)
$43M: Amount paid into citys public transportation system
53,000: Additional jobs created by direct Amazon investment
$38B: Additional indirect investment in the local economy
$17B: Increase in personal income of non-Amazon employees
24: Rise in number of Seattle-based Fortune 500 firms with R&D centers. (From 7 to 31, 20102017)
This article appears in print in the December 2017 issue. Click here for a free subscription.