By Michael Myllek

Earlier this year, Amazon announced the planning of an “HQ2,” or second headquarters, to be placed somewhere in North America, likely in the U.S. Amazon recently released the 238 locations they are considering for the new headquarters, ranging from giant urban metropolises like Chicago, to smaller cities such as Tulsa, Oklahoma. Amazon announced that they want their new location of HQ2 to meet numerous criteria, such as a metro area with more than a million people, and an environment that is both business friendly and aesthetically appealing enough to retain strong technical talent, as Amazon is planning to have over 50,000 employees working at HQ2. After sifting through the numerous proposals for this new headquarters, I have come to see that there are several great candidates that have both weaknesses and strengths.

However, the five locations that I feel are the best options are Atlanta, Chicago, Nashville, Pittsburgh and Denver.
Denver is a very attractive option for many reasons. First of all, according to neocode.com, Denver is ranked 12th nationally in tech talent. This will allow Amazon to have easy and relatively cheap access to young, skilled graduates looking for a decently paying job right out of college. The Denver area also already hosts offices of massive tech companies such as Google, Oracle, IBM and Twitter, which would allow Amazon to seamlessly and confidently transition into Denver knowing that it has experience with integrating a large company. Denver also has obvious proximity to Denver International Airport, which would allow Amazon to easily bring prospective investors and new employees in, as well as making business travel for Amazon employees very convenient. Denver also has a lot of outdoor room and is very aesthetically pleasing. This will enable Amazon to provide the campus of their HQ with plenty of recreational space, something that their Seattle HQ has plenty of. Denver also hosts a population that would be perfect for the new HQ; it currently sits at almost three million people. This would work well because it isn’t overly populated, allowing it to accommodate the estimated 125,000 people that will be inserted into this new city. As with any location, there are bound to be negatives. The only real negative about Denver is that it’s very expensive to buy property. Among the top 23 locations laid out by recode.net, Denver ranked 18th in price per square foot of office space, 22nd in Median Home Value and 21st in Median rent. Clearly, it would be very expensive to set up in Denver.

Pittsburgh is another great option, as it is a rebuilding metropolitan area with a quickly improving economy. Firstly, Pittsburgh isn’t the steel dependent economy of the past, but rather a diverse and modern economy that relies on education, healthcare and technology. Pittsburgh is also home to several universities such as the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon, which would allow Amazon to actively recruit employees right in their backyard. Like Denver, Pittsburgh is also home to numerous large businesses, gaining about 20 billion dollars annually from Google, Apple and Facebook offices in the area. Because of these recent economic boosts, Pittsburgh is now home to a thriving real estate market, allowing it to easily absorb the 125,000 expected new residents. Also, many of these new additions have easy access to the subway line, making commuting a non-issue. Pittsburgh is also relatively cheap to live and work in, as it ranks eigth in median household income and price per square foot of office space and fifth in median rent on recode.net’s top 23 list. Also, from a geographical perspective, Pittsburgh would give Amazon both a West Coast and East Coast headquarters, allowing it to branch out further than if it stayed out west. Pittsburgh’s weaknesses are mainly associated with local talent, as even though they have Carnegie Mellon and University of Pittsburgh close by, they are ranked 30th nationally in tech talent, which is 17th on the recode.net list.
Nashville is another great city with loads of potential for Amazon to place their new HQ2. To start, Nashville is the capital city of Tennessee, so we know that it is the focal point of the state it would be a priority commercially and politically. Nashville also is known for tremendous healthcare, a diverse economy and vast infrastructure base and massive growth in the tech industry in recent years. Nashville will also be able to handle the influx of people, as they too have a thriving real estate market. The problem with Nashville isn’t its many weaknesses as much as its lack of strengths. Nashville is middle of the pack in price of office space, median home value and median rent. Nashville also lacks elite universities in the area and is ranked 43rd nationally in tech talent.

Chicago is an obviously strong candidate because of its reputation as a major center of trade and commerce. Its easy access to O’Hare International Airport (the third busiest airport in the U.S.) makes Chicago very attractive, as employees could travel anywhere in the world extremely conveniently. Chicago is also solid in tech talent, as it’s ranked 15th nationally. In addition, Chicago is home to the University of Chicago, home of the most recent Nobel Prize winner in economics and what many consider to be the best economics program in the country, as well as the University of Illinois and its top ranked IT program. Chicago is an extremely vibrant and diverse city that hosts numerous attractions to residences such as sports, art, food, culture and vast public transportation to make commuting easy for employees making it perfect for Amazon. Chicago is also cheaper than many other large cities like Raleigh, Denver, Boston, Austin and Washington D.C. Chicago would also be a good fit for the new HQ, not only because of what it can do for Amazon, but because of what Amazon can do for it. Chicago has a struggling economy that could use an infusion of young educated people who will stimulate their economy and help add funding to their poorly funded local school system. To go with the abundance of positives, there are considerable negatives with Chicago. As I mentioned, Chicago is struggling, and young families may not want to bring their children into that kind of impoverished area. Chicago also already has a large population of around 9.5 million people. This would potentially make it difficult for new employees and their families to find suitable places to live. Along the same lines, Chicago doesn’t have much space left to put a large HQ, which would potentially limit the recreational room for Amazon employees, something they’ve become accustomed to in their Seattle HQ.

Finally, there’s Atlanta, an up and coming city with tons of potential upsides for Amazon. For one, Atlanta is home to the busiest airport in the U.S., hosting close to 13 million more people per year than O’Hare. Atlanta also ranks fourth in Fortune 500 company headquarters, so clearly this process would be nothing new for Atlanta. It has also led to millennials fleeing to Atlanta, meaning Amazon will have a young and diverse talent pool to choose from, as well as graduates from Georgia Tech right in its backyard, which have led to Atlanta being ranked fifth in tech talent. Atlanta has also heavily invested in numerous recreational activities such as sports stadiums, light rail transportation, running trails and parks. Atlanta’s biggest weakness isn’t a huge one, as its population is over five and a half million. While this is large, it is far smaller than Chicago and can still handle the influx of new residences because of mass investment in multi and single-family homes over the past two years. Other than that, Atlanta hosts no gaping weaknesses. Atlanta is average in cost of office space, median home value and median rent.

After exploring what I see as the top five choices, I believe that Atlanta would be the best option for Amazon’s HQ2. It is an up and coming city that would be able to accommodate Amazon because of its experience with being the home to large corporation’s headquarters. It also has a large variety of things for residents to do and is only growing and getting bigger and better. In addition, the growing population of young tech grads would give Amazon a strong employee base and give it people who share values with the company. With the recent investments made by Atlanta into housing, transportation and open space, it almost seems as though Atlanta was preparing for Amazon’s HQ2. It almost seems too good to be true.

Michael Myllek, FCRH ’19, is a political science and economics major from White Plains, New York.