Native Americans Bid to Keep Amazon in Washington, and Other Pursuit of HQ2 Updates

An Atlanta suburb is offering to rename itself "City of Amazon" to win the biggest economic development prize in modern history, Amazon's second headquarters site.Memphis is showing it can play in the big leagues by dangling $60 million in incentives for the project that'll reward one lucky city with up to 50,000 high-paying jobs. But its cross-state competitor, Nashville, is being told it could wind up costing $1.7 billion in incentives to win.Cost isn’t stopping Birmingham from being creative in its pursuit. It’s putting up giant shipping boxes throughout Alabama’s largest city to show how far it’s willing to go to become home to the $5 billion investment known as HQ2.Those are some of the newest developments in the frenzy among North American cities to lure the Seattle ecommerce giant that outgrew its home base.Amazon is giving cities a few tantalizing details to work with. It wants a stable, business-friendly environment, urban or suburban location with more than a million people, ability to attract and retain talent, within 45 minutes of an international airport and 8 million square feet of office space in nearby buildings or a 100-acre site.Dallas, Austin, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, and Denver are all seen as serious contenders. And Toronto surfaces as a dark horse candidate because of Canada’s more tech-friendly immigration laws.  Continue reading...