Don’t underestimate how much it costs a company to have all documents in both English and French/Spanish. One company I worked for had a lot of trouble, and expense, to translate all California loan documents and disclosures into Spanish. Another company I worked for had a resort in Montreal and it took forever to get contracts translated into French, all signs in both languages, all brochures. PITA.
Have no idea where they will choose but, IMO, it won’t be in a place where they have to worry about attracting highly educated professionals because of socially backward laws.
GE headquarters just moved to Boston and there is a reason they chose that city over ones in low tax states.
I’m biased in my hopes for Boston based. We are MA residents and it would be great for D to have some options closer by. Right now she is focusing on the DC/MD area for CS/Math related careers.
Boston gave GE large tax breaks to woo them. So for GE Boston is a low tax location.
@twoinanddone In Montreal it is not just documents but they would have to operate on French.
It’s likely to be in a ‘trendy’ location, popular among young professionals. I’m going to guess Denver, Austin, or Phoenix… and as a wildcard, Albuquerque, as that’s where Bezos was born. 
PS. I’m also going to guess the location will be in a warmer, sunnier climate, for those Amazon corporate employees who don’t want to work in Seattle.
Every state/city is going to give them massive tax breaks so that really doesn’t matter. That is a given. Good schools, a a highly educated work force to draw from and progressive state and local policies are more important to attracting and keeping highly educated employees. North Carolina would have been perfect, IMO, until they ran off the rails.
@NEPatsGirl, Boston has a thriving tech sector especially in start-ups. My son has been with a start-up in downtown Boston since January. He just got his third promotion (and it was a big one) since he started.
What I mean by income inequality, as applied to specific urban areas, is the relatively high proportion of poverty. The issue of social/income distress in Seattle is complicated because many limited income persons, not necessarily the poor, have migrated there lately and have taken up residence in city parks and under freeway exit ramps, with the full consent of city leaders. Many of these folks express no desire to avail themselves of traditional social services. Today in Seattle there are jalopy RVs and pup tents in many neighborhoods, including solidly middle class neighborhoods.
Contrast this with Philadelphia and Atlanta; two cities with substantial populations of struggling poor residents. As I said earlier, one of Philadelphia’s advantages is available land and affordable housing. That’s true of Atlanta also. Where Atlanta falls is the mediocre public transit system and significant traffic gridlock. Take a look at Amazon’s requirements for HQ2.
Good article outlining which cities likely candidates to be chosen.
Distribution centers are totally independent of headquarters locations. I can see Denver as a place that would draw the demographic wanting to work at a main Amazon location. Or Bezos may be looking for a place that workers can age in place in- ie be middle aged.
I think Toronto would be a better Canadian bet than Montreal.
Isn’ traffic/transportation in Atlanta dismal these days?
Been bad in Atlanta for a long time. So the work-home line needs to have options. That’s why I find west of Boston intriguing. I had a tech client out there and employees could live within 15 minutes.
The Boston suburbs are pricey, particularly the western suburbs. A friend worked for a high tech firm in the Lexington area. It was a blessing that he lived just a few minutes from work but the cost of his home was not insubstantial.
Well, certainly Lexington is expensive but there are many towns that are more affordable in the area, especially if you are willing to commute 30 minutes or so.
We moved from outside Boston to outside of Austin and the taxes and cost of living are MUCH less in Texas.
Lex is among the most expensive suburbs and off 95, 10 miles from Boston, as the crow flies. Along with Concord and a few others, great cachet. It’s not part of the Metro West we’re talking about. We mean the broad range of bedroom communities further out, following Rt 495. And in that area, many tech companies. Not stuck with a 30 min commute, nothing like traffic around the city. Good quality of life, good k12, and more.
I would say Columbus or Cincinnati Ohio would be good options. You get a Big Bang for buck, and a choice of good public school districts with reasonable housing.
Th problem is once Amazon moves to an area, the housing will no longer be reasonable. The article above mentioned cities with good public transportation which would remove most of the cities vying for the business.
A big issue missing from many of these cities is the ability to poach talent. Part of what made Amazon successful here is there were already hundreds of thousands of trained computer professionals thanks to Microsoft and Google and other smaller companies. Places like Orlando or Cincinnati just won’t have the density.
I still think Texas, either Dallas or Austin. After that would be Raleigh and Atlanta. They seem to be concentrating on the anti-Seattle, so sunny, hot, and Republican, but a desirable enough city to attract young people.
Oh, i have an interesting update, you guys! As we know, the RFP was public and any city could access (we can too! 
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/Anything/test/images/usa/RFP_3.V516043504.pdf ) but i heard from a friend in Pittsburgh that maybe 15 to 20 cities (he wasn’t sure of the number) have been given a higher level of nondisclosure documents as of a couple of weeks ago. And those cities are operating with more information than others as far as how to structure the bid. In any case, everything is due October 19…it will be interesting indeed to see.
Do you really think Bezos considers Republican leaning as a draw?
“I still think Texas, either Dallas or Austin. After that would be Raleigh and Atlanta. They seem to be concentrating on the anti-Seattle, so sunny, hot, and Republican, but a desirable enough city to attract young people.” ~ Magnetron
All of the cities you mentioned have democrat mayors.