Saint Louis Not Among Finalists For Amazon's HQ2

ST. LOUIS, MO — Online retail giant Amazon released a list of finalists for the company's new headquarters Thursday. Of 238 communities across the United States, Mexico and Canada that submitted proposals, Amazon has shortlisted 20. St. Louis was not among them.

The expansion, which will rival the company's Seattle headquarters in size, is expected to create up to 50,000 new jobs and inject billions of dollars into the local economy of the winning city. State and local officials signed a non-disclosure agreement with Amazon, preventing the details of St. Louis' bid, including any promised tax incentives, from being made public.

"Working together as a region on @Amazon #HQ2 forced us to focus on our assets," St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson wrote on Twitter this morning. "We will continue to use the proposal we put together as a blueprint for growth."

The state of Missouri submitted its own unsuccessful bid to Amazon, complete with a futuristic proposal for a "hyperloop" connecting St. Louis and Kansas City. State officials envisioned an "innovation corridor" between the two cities.

Amazon said only six U.S. states did not submit HQ2 bids: Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.

“Thank you to all 238 communities that submitted proposals. Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough – all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity,” said Amazon public policy executive Holly Sullivan in a statement. “Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation.”

In the coming months, Amazon said the company will work to evaluate each of the candidates, and that it expects to make a decision sometime in 2018.

The cities on Amazon's shortlist include:

1. Atlanta, Ga.
2. Austin, Texas
3. Boston, Mass.
4. Chicago, Ill.
5. Columbus, Ohio
6. Dallas, Texas
7. Denver, Colo.
8. Indianapolis, Ind.
9. Los Angeles, Calif.
10. Miami, Fla.
11. Montgomery County, Md.
12. Nashville, Tenn.
13. Newark, N.J.
14. New York City, N.Y.
15. Northern Virginia, Va.
16. Philadelphia, Pa.
17. Pittsburgh, Pa.
18. Raleigh, N.C.
19. Toronto, Ontario
20. Washington, D.C.

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