Could Amazon resist the call of Amazon, Georgia?
STONECREST, Ga. - Officials from a recently incorporated city outside Atlanta want to shed some of their new municipality's land and rename it Amazon, Georgia, in the hopes it will spur e-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN) to locate its second headquarters there.
The Stonecrest City Council voted 4-2 on Monday to de-annex 345 acres of land and to ask the Georgia General Assembly to use it to form the city of Amazon, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
"How could you not want your 21st century headquarters to be located in a city named Amazon?" asked Stonecrest Mayor Jason Lary.
Amazon has said it will spend more than $5 billion to build a second headquarters, dubbed HQ2, in North America with as many as 50,000 jobs, sparking a bidding war to land the coveted new complex. And one possible location is indeed in or near Atlanta, according to a CBS MoneyWatch analysis.
The Seattle-based company said it's looking at metropolitan areas with populations of more than a million people, which have the potential to attract top technical talent.
Stonecrest officials plan to submit a bid for Amazon's HQ2 by the company's Oct. 19 deadline. Amazon expects to make a decision next year.
Stonecrest is located 20 miles east of Atlanta, and is home to about 53,000 residents. It incorporated as a city this year.