Amazon Says It’s Received More Than 230 Bids For New HQ

(Seattle, WA) — Amazon says 238 regions and cities across the U.S. want to host the online retailer’s second headquarters.

Bids for the new headquarters were due last Thursday. Cities big and small are trying to woo Amazon and the more than five-billion dollars it plans to spend on its second headquarters.

CNBC reports one mayor in Georgia says he’ll rename the town Amazon if the company moves there. Amazon has very specific requirements. The town must have an established mass transit system, easy access to an international airport, universities and a population of at least one-million.

We’ll find out next year which city won.

Reuters reports that “More than 50 cities have the 1-million metropolitan area population Amazon targets. Likely contenders could include U.S. Midwest states, where Amazon has many warehouses; Texas, which is the base of the Whole Foods Market grocery chain it acquired this year; and other business-friendly states.

Amazon has been awarded more than $1 billion in state and local subsidies since 2000, according to estimates by watchdog Good Jobs First. Texas leads the way with the value of subsidies to Amazon, followed by Illinois, Kentucky, and Ohio, it said.”