Does Charlotte Have A Real Shot At Amazon?

CHARLOTTE, NC -- The Queen City is making the last push in its quest to become Amazon’s second headquarters, declaring Wednesday Charlotte Prime Day. The flourish of flattery for the online retail giant comes as more than 100 cities across the U.S. make their bids by Oct. 19 in hopes of luring 50,000 new jobs and a $5 billion investment in economic development.

Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts has declared Oct. 18 “#CLTisPrime Day,” in conjunction with a photo and video contest by the Charlotte Regional Partnership seeking entries showing off why Charlotte should be considered for the second headquarters. There’s even a new website devoted to the cause.

But when you cut through the noise of campaigns and gimmicks, does Charlotte really have a shot?

A recent analysis from Moody's Analytics looked at the requirements put forth in Amazon's HQ2 request for proposals and added in a couple factors it believes are important to businesses making such landmark decisions. After applying those standards to all 65 metro areas with a population of 1 million or more (excluding Amazon's current home of Seattle,) Charlotte sadly did not make the Top-10 shortlist of potential landing spots.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that it wasn’t far off the mark.

Out of the 65 potential metro areas in the U.S., the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia region came in No. 15, according to the study. Raleigh fared two spots better, at No. 13.

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Also See: Amazon Is Expanding, And It Could Be Coming To A City Near You

Here's how Charlotte did in each category, ranked 0-5, with 5 being the best:

Business environment: The Charlotte metro area starts off strong with a 4.1 ranking. According to Moody’s, just in this category alone Charlotte was easily in the top 10 in the nation, behind cities like Austin, Nashville and Dallas.

Human capital: When it came to this category, the Charlotte lost its competitive edge, scoring 2.7, which ranked it No. 31 out of 65.

Cost: This category includes the cost of doing business and real estate, which means Charlotte has an edge. When looking at these factors alone, the Queen City came in at No. 14 with a score of 3.6.

Quality of life: Art. Entertainment. Food. Ah, and crime rate. The Charlotte metro area did not fare well in this category, coming in near the very bottom with a ranking of 56 and a score of 1.7. While arts, entertainment and recreation were a boon for the region in this study, the crime rate and schools were not.

Transportation: In looking at the region’s range of transportation options -- from walking, biking and car commuting to the airport and public transportation -- Charlotte’s score of 2.1 was not nearly as strong as other cities. Specifically 34 of them.

Geography: This category was not given any weight in the rankings, and included variables such as distance to Amazon, Jeff Bezos’ home and state fulfillment centers. Which is just as well because this was another category where Charlotte ceded ground to other metro areas, scoring 2.4.

“This ranking does help to show which metro areas Amazon should consider on its short list,” Moody’s said. “Determining which is better will require looking at specific site availability and what the metro areas are willing to offer.”

Here are the top 10 metro areas following those rankings:

1. Austin/Round Rock, Texas
2. Atlanta/Sandy Springs/Roswell, Georgia
3. Philadelphia
4. Rochester, New York
5. Pittsburgh
6. New York/Jersey City/White Plains, New York/New Jersey
7. Miami/Miami Beach/Kendall, Florida
8. Portland/Vancouver/Hillsboro, Oregon/Washington
9. Boston
10. Salt Lake City

See the full analysis here, where you can play around with their system to give different categories more or less weight and see if you can get Charlotte to the top.

More information about the #CLTisPrime photo and video contest can be found here.

Image via Patch file