John Bogna
Houston and San Antonio are two of the cities vying to be the apple of Amazon’s corporate eye.
According to Houston Chronicle, Amazon released a request for proposal to the public on Thursday morning, outlining what guidelines a city would have to meet to be chosen as the new location for an Amazon headquarters building equal to the one it has in Seattle, WA.
RELATED: Amazon Looking to Fill 1,000 Jobs in Central Texas, San Antonio.
It goes without saying that whatever city wins the bid will see an influx of jobs and a boost to its economy from them, both through construction of the building and later staffing of the new Amazon facility. Amazon is already working on a new distribution center in Houston, and began hiring hundreds of new workers for it recently. The new headquarters will bring in about 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in investment from the company, according to Techcrunch.
A spokesman for Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said that “The city is very interested,” in an interview with the Houston Chronicle, and added “The city is checking on the procedures for officially being considered, and the city is excited and feels like it’s well positioned for a number of reasons.”
Houston is close to Austin, which has a lot of jobs in the tech industry and therefore attracts a lot of the talent that Amazon would be looking for in its workforce.
Other categories outlined in the proposal request include things like real estate, quality of life, the size of a city’s labor force and its proximity to things like airports and highways, all of which lean in Houston’s favor.
RELATED: Whole Foods and Amazon Team up to Make Healthy Food More Affordable.
