Urban Analyst: Philadelphia 'Fits The Bill' For Amazon Headquarters
Philadelphia (CBS) - Amazon announced that Philadelphia is one of the 20 finalist cities under consideration to host Amazon's second headquarters in North America. "Philadelphia should feel good about being on the list," says Aaron Renn, a Senior Fellow at The Manhattan Institute. Renn tells The Chris Stigall Show on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT that Philadelphia is a competitive city.
"One of the things that Amazon's RFP (Request For Proposal) was really emphasizing was transit and urban environments. And the truth is, if you want a truly urban, rail/transit or any kind of transit oriented place in America, there are really only about five or six cities in the whole country that fit the bill. Philadelphia is one of them. It's also probably the lowest cost, land is affordable, and it's on the East Coast. And it's large enough that you could plausibly hire 50,000 people. I think that's a big factor in the overall bid."
Renn says Amazon wants to keep us all guessing with their selection.
"There's not too much of a common theme across the 20 cities selected. All of the cities are with more than a million people and more cities are skewed to the Eastern U.S."
Amazon says they will make a final selection sometime this year.