Amazon Is Choosing a Second Home. What Are Its Options?

Amazon.com Inc. is looking for a North American city to build a massive second headquarters. Dubbed “HQ2,” the site will probably cost more than $5 billion, take up to two decades to develop and employ 50,000 people. Whatever city gets chosen will be transformed by Amazon, which has already changed the character of its native Seattle, setting in motion a building boom and rising rents.

“Seattle doesn't have enough capacity for their growth,” says Lisa Picard, chief executive officer of Equity Office, one of the biggest office landlords in the U.S. “That's the biggest issue.”

HQ2 will be a major economic boon for the city that successfully woos Amazon, and mayors, including Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel and Jim Strickland of Memphis, Tennessee, are already raising their hands. So are officials in Philadelphia, Hartford, Connecticut; Tulsa, Oklahoma; St. Louis and Rhode Island, demonstrating that Amazon will wield a lot of leverage in making its choice.