Austin is officially in the running for Amazon.com Inc. HQ2 — a project potentially worth $5 billion and up to 50,000 jobs. Now it's time to hurry up and wait.
The Austin Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday afternoon it submitted its bid to the Seattle company but declined to provide details. Dozens of sites around the area are likely in play — Luke Sheffield, the chamber’s public relations manager, said the organization was coordinating plans for all five counties in the Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area: Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell.
Thursday is the deadline to submit responses to Amazon's request for proposal, which asked for sites in or near large metro areas with access to highways, an international airport and mass transit, and has indicated a preference for downtown locations. The company has said it will make its selection sometime in 2018.
Cities and economic development groups across the country have submitted their own bids. In rural Milam County, about an hour's drive northeast of Austin, officials are loudly marketing 33,000-plus acres that were once home to a thriving coal mine. Other bids across the country include the 35-plus sites offered in North Texas to a unified effort out of North Carolina to 100-plus acres in Northwest Atlanta.
Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), which has more than 380,000 employees worldwide, already has a substantial corporate campus in Austin at The Domain with 900-plus employees. The company also has built one of its huge warehouses just south of Austin in San Marcos, which already employs more than 3,000 people. Central Texas has been pegged a leading contender by many publications — plus it is home to Amazon's newest subsidiary, Whole Foods Market Inc.
The Business Journals have identified $1.24 billion in taxpayer-funded subsidies and incentives for Amazon. Yet HQ2 would be transformation for the Austin region during a time of rapid economic change caused by shifting consumer trends and great leaps in technology.
