Amazon announces 20 finalist locations for its second headquarters

Amazon has narrowed the search for its second headquarters down to 20 locations, which it intends to work with to make a final pick by the end of 2018. The finalists are: Atlanta, Georgia; Austin, Texas; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Indianapolis, Indiana; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; Montgomery County, Maryland; Nashville, Tennessee; Newark, New Jersey; New York City, New York; Northern Virginia, Virginia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Raleigh, North Carolina; Toronto, Ontario, and Washington, DC.

Now that it’s down to a final list, Amazon says that it plans to “dive deeper into their proposals” and evaluate whether these locations can actually support the company’s plan to add up to 50,000 jobs. The final list is full of mostly expected choices. Amazon is looking primarily at major metro areas with lots of people, transit options, and access to airports.

The release of this list also continues the reality show that Amazon has essentially been conducting in the search for its second home. Last September, Amazon announced that it would accept proposals from cities interested in hosting its second headquarters, which turned into a big series of publicity stunts both for cities and Amazon itself. In total, 238 proposals came in throughout North America, Amazon says.

Amazon’s very public competition is likely to continue now that it’s announced finalists, as these locations all do their best to woo the new jobs and money it’ll bring in. That said, it’s easy to imagine that Amazon has an even shorter list of finalists that it’s looking at internally and is using this mix of larger and smaller locations to help it bargain with the locations it truly believes would be best. Ultimately, that’s what this contest has been all about: a way to get cities to offer Amazon some great perks before it makes a commitment.