We’re No. 2!
Boston is the second most likely city, behind Dallas, to land Amazon’s hotly pursued “second headquarters,” according to a new analysis conducted by the Wall Street Journal.
They ranked 11 cities — and Amazon’s hometown of Seattle — based on metrics of the company’s stated criteria and interviews with site selection experts and “people familiar with Amazon’s thinking.” That led them to come up with a top three of Dallas, Boston and Washington, DC — which have widely been considered among the top contenders.
Boston fared best on measures of “cultural fit” and fiscal health — a gauge of the region’s public spending and economy — and less good on cost of living. Perhaps surprisingly, Boston scored below average on the size of its tech labor force, a reminder that if Amazon really plans to hire 50,000 people it may need to choose quite a large city indeed.
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The study didn’t look at other factors that Amazon has said it will weigh, including air access and tax incentives, and it didn’t attempt to guess what factors will matter most to Amazon in the end. Nor did it look at cities in Canada, such as Toronto — which many experts consider a strong contender.
After launching a highly-publicized search in September for a place to build a second headquarters, Amazon received 238 proposals from cities and states across North America, including several from Eastern Massachusetts. Boston pitched a campus at Suffolk Downs, while Somerville proposed a string of sites along the Orange Line from North Station to Assembly Row.
Amazon is reviewing proposals and said it will choose a site next year.
Tim Logan can be reached at tim.logan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bytimlogan.