The floodgates of speculation have already opened several hours after Amazon’s epic announcement of a second headquarters to come in North America.
The economic opportunity is quite baffling: $50 billion in local investment and 50,000 jobs averaging $100,000 salaries over the next decade. Not to mention the tens of billions of indirect investment to come from so many new jobs and a massive real estate development. Amazon says it indirectly pumped $38 billion into the Seattle economy from 2010-2016.
But there’s a lot on the line too. Large corporations are increasingly using a public RFP process to pit states against each other to win their campuses and jobs, creating a sort of arms race of incentives like tax breaks and grants. Amazon could also push up local wages as its software developers are among the highest paid in the U.S. And it could challenge local companies eager for young talent—Amazon is a top place Millennials want to work.
We scanned Twitter for a mix of opinions from national and local sources, as well as pitches on why North Carolina’s cities should or shouldn’t make the short list. We’ll update this throughout the day, so please tweet us @exitevent to share your thoughts.
