Best Places in the Boston Area for Amazon’s Second Headquarters

On the 7th of September, Amazon made a public announcement that it is currently seeking for a home of its second headquarters. With the first one in Seattle, there have been stories circulating that Boston is a favorite city of many of the e-commerce giant’s executives. While Amazon is still accepting proposals until the 19th of October, there are already some suggestions about the best sites for the HQ in the Boston area as well as in other parts of Massachusetts.

The Requirements for the Headquarters

Of course, Amazon is a little picky when it comes to the HQ site. While cities and states are welcome to apply, it has laid out some requirements that would allow it to narrow down the list of potential locations. Among the specific prerequisites that every candidate should possess are:

• The popular e-commerce website is looking for space that has a primary build-out of approximately 500,000 square feet.
• The city or the location should have direct access to transit.
• The site should be close to an international airport.
• There should be great universities in proximity as well.

Considering the conditions above, the city of Boston, which is the capital and the largest city in the state of Massachusetts, meets all of these requirements.

The Other Contenders

Aside from Boston, there are other cities that are being talked about for Amazon’s HQ:

• Atlanta: As a significant hub for air travel, Atlanta connects 80% of the US population as it is just within a two-hour flight from Washington DC, San Francisco, Seattle, and New York.
• Pittsburgh: With Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh has some of the best software engineers that Amazon may be interested in hiring.
• Toronto: Although Amazon is a US-based company, it is also considering North America for its HQ.
• Texas: The city is extremely business-friendly and has four of the five regions considered as the fastest growing, according to the US Census Bureau.
• Austin: This city has other tech companies such as Facebook, Samsung, and Apple.

Meanwhile, Boston previously welcomed General Electric (GE) as well as Iboss Cybersecurity, which both have their new headquarters in the city. Boston is also nearby MIT and Harvard, which would make it easy to hire top talents in the industry. Additionally, Amazon has a close association with the city after the purchase of a Boston-based robot maker in 2012.

Where in Boston Area is the Ideal Spot for Amazon’s Headquarters?

The search is still on, but many people have started sharing their ideas about where Amazon’s second HQ could fit in the Boston area. For some citizens, Suffolk Downs is a good choice. After all, this racetrack has 161 acres of space in the East Boston-Revere borders.

If Suffolk Downs were chosen as the HQ site, it would boost its confidence. It was once one of the leading contenders for hosting a particular casino-resort, which it eventually lost in 2014. The next two years were not too friendly with the racetrack, but it is currently being considered by a development firm.

If things do not go as planned, Suffolk Downs could still be available and may even be the next home for Amazon’s headquarters. Aside from being spacious, it is near transit namely the two Blue Line stops. The racetrack is also close to downtown Boston and Logan International Airport.

Although Suffolk Downs seems like a smart option, Amazon wants the new headquarters to be as much as eight million square feet. Therefore, they are looking for a very large vacant expanse. The size is about 20 times bigger than that of General Electric Co., which has its new campus currently under construction in Fort Point.

Additionally, Suffolk Downs would need major improvements in its infrastructure before the construction of the HQ could take place. In this case, there are some other municipalities across Massachusetts that offered their own bids.

It is almost the deadline for the submission of proposals from different locations. However, the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has announced that there will not be any decision until next year.