Just a couple weeks after a magazine named Detroit as one of five cities who could be awarded Amazon's "HQ2" headquarters, a new study says that the city is not even a likely contender.
According to the location decision and scoring analysis for Amazon HQ2 from REIS, Detroit isn't in the top 25 cities that could host the $5 billion headquarters. According to REIS, they provide "comprehensive and unbiased data that is used by commercial real estate professionals."
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"Our results show that large tech-focused cities rank at the top with New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Seattle and San Jose ranking ast he top 5," they wrote. "Assuming Amazon will choose a location that is far from the Pacific northwest, that leaves New York and DC as the top two choices."
Other cities in the top 10 not in the Pacific northwest include suburban Virginia, New Orleans, Boston, Rochester, N.Y. and Chicago.
The company used the same methods that Amazon said they looked for in their requests for proposals, which include metro areas with more than one million people, business-friendly environments, proximity to airports, major highways, mass transit and more.
New York City tops the list with 593 percent of the public transportation access, but falls on the negative side for office and apartment rent.
Other cities included in the top 25 include Pittsburgh at No. 14, Denver at No. 15, Raleigh-Durham at No. 23 and Chattanooga, Tenn. at No. 25.
The study did say that Amazon's decision could come down to some factors that aren't listed in REIS' analysis.
"These measures include the tax incentives granted by the city/state, the 'creativeness' of the location, other immeasurable qualitative features and/or an underlying preference on the part of the decision makers," they wrote.
They also said the decision could come down to whether or not the owner of the company, Jeff Bezos, owns a newspaper in the city. Bezos owns the Washington Post in Washington DC.
As part of Detroit's bid, they Rock Ventures launched a website, detroitmovestheworld.com, to show the city's vision for the future.
"We are redefining the future of mobility, innovation, business and culture," Eichinger said. "With unparalleled infrastructure, unlimited access to resource sand innovative talent, Detroit's momentum is undeniable."
Part of the Detroit Moves The World campaign includes the slogan, "Move here. Move the world. Detroit was made for this."
The campaign works to showcase Detroit's ability to grow, how they're changing the world now and the wealth of knowledge and skill coming out of the city. The website shows the vision, why the city is perfect for Amazon HQ2 and a chance to get a closer look at the city.
The entire top 25 is listed below:
- New York City
- San Francisco
- Washington DC
- Seattle
- San Jose
- Suburban Virginia
- New Orleans
- Boston
- Rochester, N.Y.
- Chicago
- Omaha
- Philadelphia
- Cincinnati
- Pittsburgh
- Denver
- Providence
- Syracuse
- Colorado Springs
- New Haven
- Westchester
- Suburban Maryland
- Salt Lake City
- Raleigh-Durham
- Richmond
- Chattanooga
