Jacksonville will not be home to Amazon.com’s second North American headquarters.
The online retailer announced its top 20 candidates in a news release Thursday morning. The only Florida city to make the cut is Miami.
The list includes Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Boston; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas; Denver; Indianapolis; Los Angeles; Miami; Montgomery County, Maryland; Nashville, Tennessee; Newark, New Jersey; New York City; Northern Virginia; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Raleigh, North Carolina; Toronto; and Washington, D.C.
In the news release, Holly Sullivan with Amazon Public Policy thanked the 238 communities that submitted proposals.
“Getting from 238 to 20 was very tough – all the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity,” Sullivan said.
“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,” her statement continued.
The company said it would “dive deeper” into the proposals in the coming months to seek “additional information, and evaluate the feasibility of a future partnership that can accommodate the company’s hiring plans as well as benefit its employees and the local community.”
Jacksonville submitted a bid that reportedly offered free city property near EverBank Field and the sports and entertainment district.
JAX Chamber and Enterprise Florida Inc., the agencies that put the bids together, declined to release further details of the bid submitted to Amazon other than a 3-minute, 36-second video.
The e-commerce retailer said that its second corporate headquarters would create 50,000 jobs with an average salary of $100,000, and develop 8 million square feet of office space and invest $5 billion over 15-17 years.
Amazon cut the list to 20 based on the criteria outlined in its September Request for Proposals.
It expects to select a location later this year.