Vancouver won’t be home to Amazon’s HQ2.
The retail behemoth announced Thursday morning that the only West Coast city to make the shortlist was Los Angeles; the only Canadian city is Toronto. Two-thirds of the remaining candidates are east of Lake Superior, far from Amazon’s existing Seattle headquarters.
This isn’t necessarily bad news. Although Amazon’s $5 billion project would have added 50,000 jobs to Vancouver, there were concerns about the effect on a housing market that has already become too expensive for most Vancouverites.
The other issue: where to find the 8.1 million sq.ft. of required land?
The provincial government had kicked in $50,000 to help Vancouver and Surrey create a bid.
"We have a fast-growing tech sector and several U.S. companies, such as Microsoft, Electronic Arts and Sony Imageworks, have already established a presence here because of the talent base that B.C. offers,” Premier John Horgan said in a press release last September. “Amazon HQ2 is an opportunity to create thousands of well-paying jobs for the people of B.C., which will greatly benefit our communities and the tech sector and create spin-off benefits for related industries."
Last November, Amazon's Vancouver office announced it was leasing new space in downtown Vancouver for 1,000 new employees. It is slated to open in 2020.
