Dallas Makes Pitch To Amazon For New Headquarters

Amazon is searching for a home for its new second headquarters, and Dallas is a contender. The online retailer plans to open its second headquarters, HQ2, in a North American city. The company has claimed the HQ2, a $5 billion investment, could bring upwards of 50,000 jobs to the area it chooses.

Dallas is no stranger to to vying for new business. In recent years, Toyota relocated its North American headquarters to Plano while State Farm instituted a regional campus in Richardson. According to The Dallas Morning News, Toyota's 2-million-square-foot campus will be completed this month and is estimated to bring a total of 4,000 new jobs to the area. Likewise, State Farm's campus is home to approximately 7,200 employees, according to The Dallas Morning News.

According to Houston Business Journal, Toyota received incentives to relocate to DFW. In 2014, the Texas Enterprise Fund awarded a $40 million relocation grant to Toyota. Additionally, the city of Plano awarded $6.75 million in incentives to the car manufacturer.

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Amazon is seeking incentives as well. Dallas' mayor Mike Rawlings told The Dallas Morning News there is "no question" the city will offer them to Amazon. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Dallas Patch, or click here to find your local Texas Patch. Also, if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

"Fundamentally, you've got to decide, are you going to grow, or not?" Rawlings told Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith during The Texas Tribune Festival. "If a company says, 'I'm going to bring 50,000 employees, what are you going to do for me,' that's a fair transaction."

Image via Pixabay