RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Anyone hoping for a quick resolution to Amazon’s vetting process for its $5 billion HQ2 project and 50,000 jobs will apparently see that hope dashed.
According to a report, Amazon executives have told the 20 finalists – one of which is the Triangle – in the HQ2 process that the review process is ongoing and will be for a while.
As WRAL TechWire has reported, Amazon is expected to cut the field of 20 to a final group of five or so candidates. That cut could occur in the next “couple of months,” Atlanta TV station WSB-TV Channel 2 reports.
The Triangle also is waiting news about whether Apple will build its promised new campus in the region.
A spokesperson for the North Carolina Department of Commerce declined comment about the status of either the Amazon or Apple projects.
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Amazon has sent “emails to all 20 finalist cities” about the status of the HQ2 process noting that it will be “a couple of months to whittle down the finalist list to around three cities,” WSB-TV says.
The ecommerce giant has consistently denied any comment about where the HQ2 project stands. It has promised a decision sometime later this year.
Amazon also requested “any updates or new information” from the 20 metro areas, WSB-TV added.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal confirmed that the state had updated Amazon on developments regarding transit.
“The answer to that is yes,” he told WSB-TV’s Richard Elliot.
Mass transit has been one of the essential priorities Amazon has stressed since it announced the HQ2 process late last year. And that issue has been hotly debated in North Carolina where a dispute about how to fund light rail in the Triangle triggered a heated back-and-forth at the General Assembly.
The Atlanta station noted that Georgia’s update to Amazon covered a recently passed “comprehensive regional transit plan.”
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston told WSB-TV: ‘We’ve seen companies like Mercedes-Benz, State Farm and yes, Amazon.com tell us explicitly that transit is important to world-class companies and their employees.”
Both Atlanta and the Triangle have ranked high and low in a wide variety of studies and reports about which of the 20 metros stands the best chance of landing HQ2.
