Amazon's 2nd HQ City: Los Angeles To Bid On Project

LOS ANGELES – Amazon officials announced plans today to open a second headquarters in a large city where the company will employ up to 50,000 workers, and Los Angeles is one of the cities planning to bid on the project.

"I can confirm that we are planning to bid," Alex Comisar, Mayor Eric Garcetti's press secretary, told City News Service.

The company's current headquarters is located in Seattle, where it employs more than 40,000 people. Amazon said it plans to invest $5 billion in the construction and operation of its second headquarters.

According to the company's request for proposals, it wants the new headquarters to be located in a metropolitan area with more than one million people. The deadline to respond is Oct. 19, and the final selection is set to be made sometime in 2018.

"We expect HQ2 to be a full equal to our Seattle headquarters," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO. "Amazon HQ2 will bring billions of dollars in up- front and ongoing investments, and tens of thousands of high-paying jobs. We're excited to find a second home."

"Amazon HQ2 will be a complete headquarters for Amazon – not a satellite office," the company said in a statement. "Amazon expects to hire new teams and executives in HQ2, and will also let existing senior leaders across the company decide whether to locate their teams in HQ1, HQ2 or both.

"The company expects that employees who are currently working in HQ1 can choose to continue working there, or they could have an opportunity to move if they would prefer to be located in HQ2."

Amazon, a worldwide leader in e-commerce, estimates that its investments in Seattle between 2010 and 2016 added $38 billion to the city's economy.

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--City News Service contributed to this report/Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images