Dallas Among Group Of Cities Amazon Is Still Considering For HQ2

DALLAS, TX -- Dallas is one of three cities still being considered for Amazon's $5 billion second headquarters, according to reports. New York City and leading favorite Crystal City, Virginia, round out the list, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"The company is so close to making its choice that Crystal City's top real estate developer, JBG Smith, has pulled some of its buildings off the leasing market and officials in the area have discussed how to make an announcement to the public this month, following the midterm elections," the Washington Post reported, citing public and private-sector officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity given Amazon's penchant for secrecy as it relates to the selection process.

A followup report from WSJ Monday afternoon indicates that Amazon will now consider splitting its second headquarters among two different cities.

Dubbed HQ2, Amazon's second headquarters is expected to create roughly 50,000 jobs over the next decade, the Dallas Morning News reported. Two other Texas cities in serious contention at one point were Houston and Austin.

The Dallas metro area was ranked as one of the top 10 best places for tech professionals to live in the U.S.

CompTIA Association of IT Professionals 2018 Tech Town Index ranked the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area number six on its list, just three spots below Austin-Round Rock. At the top of the list was Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia in North Carolina.

To determine the ranking, CompTIA, which is an association representing the international technology community, looked at metro areas where demand for tech workers is high and ranked them based on cost of living, number of open IT positions, and projected job growth over the next five years, the association stated on its website.

The median salary for IT professionals in the Dallas area is $84,614. Between Aug. 2017 and July 2018, more than 108,000 IT job postings have been made in the area, according to CompTIA.

"Forty-two Fortune 1000 companies call DFW home. And if you’ve set your sights on a career in the financial field, the area is a key banking center in the US. Another employment possibility on the horizon—Dallas also finds itself on the list of proposed sites for Amazon’s HQ2," CompTIA stated in its report.

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Staff writer Tony Cantu contributed to this report

Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images