NoVa A Favorite For Amazon's 2nd HQ: Consultant

Now that Amazon has narrowed the list of contenders for its massive second headquarters, everyone is trying to figure out who the favorite is. According to one consulting group, Northern Virginia has an excellent chance to win the fierce competition.

Hamilton Place Strategies has released a report ranking Amazon's 2nd HQ options, and NoVa is third, behind only Boston and neighboring D.C., which took the top spot.

Among Northern Virginia's strengths are its mass transit, which it ranked third, as well as proximity to multiple international airports. NoVa also has the best educated workforce, above average livability and diversity, and around 50 percent fiber optic coverage.

Working against NoVa is the fact that it has fewer top 50 universities than other contenders, and below average business and career rankings. It also has below average cellular coverage at around 81 percent.

The firm said that D.C. had similarly high scores in the same categories, and similar drawbacks -- except in terms of cellular coverage, which was good at 99 percent.

There is one other good reason to believe NoVa and D.C. are favorites (not mentioned in the report): Amazon owner Jeff Bezos purchased the Washington Post not long ago, and owns a home in the D.C. area.

The new headquarters would bring 50,000 jobs to whatever area is chosen, as well as billions of dollars in investment.

You can read the full report here.

SANTA MONICA, CA - SEPTEMBER 6: The Amazon logo is projected onto a screen at a press conference on September 6, 2012 in Santa Monica, California. Amazon unveiled the Kindle Paperwhite and the Kindle Fire HD in 7 and 8.9-inch sizes. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)