A lot has been said about the exponential expansion of the world’s largest online marketplace, Amazon. The empire that arose from the simple dream of its founder and now chairman/CEO Jeff Bezos has not only established a global presence but also grown due to some high-profile mergers and company acquisitions, like the Whole Foods supermarket chain. It has gotten to the point that critics and detractors of Amazon spin conspiracy theories of the giant internet retailer plotting to make humanity buy everything it needs to live from them. Now surely Amazon is not that bad if its efforts to create jobs in America within its company are any indication.
This Thursday, they announced their biggest job opening yet.
Amazon HQ2
On September 7, Amazon revealed their plans to physically expand their operation from their original Seattle headquarters. In short, another city in North America could soon become home for a new corporate complex for Jeff Bezos’ online retail giant. The not so subtly named “HQ2” has been estimated to cost $5 billion in both construction cost and later operations; and speaking of operations, Amazon is looking at the possibility of staffing it with no less than 50,000 people, a major boost to employment for whatever city it will be located at.
At present, Bezos is still seeking bids from both cities and construction outfits on HQ2, which he says will not be a satellite branch but a true corporate office complex for Amazon the equal of their Seattle “HQ1.” "We’re excited to find a second home," remarks Bezos on the ongoing search for where the new complex will set down roots.
Criteria for choosing
Granted, while many places in the US and Canada would very much love to be host to Amazon’s planned HQ2, the online retailer has set down certain criteria for locating their new home. First of all, they would like it to be in a major metropolitan area that must have a population of over a million. Second, Amazon wants the location to be directly accessible to mass transit and be no more than 45 minutes away from an international airport.
They also want the site to have around 8 million square feet of open land – the same area occupied by HQ1 in Seattle – within which HQ2 could expand its buildings and facilities in the next ten years.
Jeff Bezos has had Amazon set up a special website for all interested city and state government heads to make their cases for having their community be the place to build HQ2. Thus far, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Toronto have publicly made their bids known. The lure of having 50,000 employees each averaging yearly pays of P100,000 is a powerful motivator.
