Amazon Visited Chicago In August To Scout HQ2 Site: Report

CHICAGO — It has been more than a year since Amazon began accepting bids from U.S. cities to build a second headquarters, and the Seattle-based company still hasn't decided which metro area will land the new HQ2 campus. But officials for the online retail giant were in Chicago in August to continue to scout potential locations.

The mid-August visit centered around a South Loop site known as The 78, a 62-acre development between Clark Street and the Chicago River and Roosevelt Road and Ping Tom Memorial Park, according to the Chicago Tribune. Amazon's HQ2 selection team also had visited the site, along with four other areas, during a visit to the city in March.

Chicago submitted its bid for HQ2 in October 2017, and it's among 20 cities — New York City, Atlanta, Dallas and Denver are on the list — competing for the second headquarters. Amazon is expected to spend around $5 billion building and running HQ2, which is expected to create 50,000 jobs in the area that's eventually chosen.

More Patch Coverage:

• Amazon's Bezos Names HQ2 Decision Date For Chicago
  
• Emanuel Releases Chicago's Shatner-Narrated Amazon Bid Video
• Amazon HQ2: Chicago Protesters Don't Like City 'Hunger Games'
• Amazon HQ2: Search Committee To Tour Chicago, Report Says
• Chicago, Amazon Talk About 2nd Headquarters In City
• Chicago Submits Amazon HQ2 Bid
• Chicago Lands On Amazon's List For 2nd HQ2

Last week, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said a decision on HQ2's location would be made by the end of the year. Because Bezos owns the Washington Post, oddsmaker put Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., as the two most likely area's to land the second headquarters.

Building HQ2 in Chicago would continue Amazon's expansion in the city and Illinois. The company recently increased the size of its downtown office, and it opened a no-checkout store this month in the Loop to go with its Lake View book store, which began operating in 2016.

More via the Chicago Tribune

Image via Amazon