Open thread: Could Chicago actually land Amazon’s second HQ?

Yesterday, Amazon announced that they intend to build a second headquarters that would eventually house upwards of 50,000 employees, and cities across the country immediately jumped at the chance to land such a coveted corporate project. Shortly after the announcement was publicly revealed, Grant Klinzman, the spokesman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, told the Chicago Tribune that Chicago’s mayor has already been in talks with Amazon about a new corporate outpost in the Windy City. After all, Chicago has led the country in corporate investment and relocations four years in a row, the mayor’s spokesman declared.

However, Chicago will face fierce competition from cities large and small across the country. So far, elected representatives from cities like Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, Philadelphia, and even New York City have all indicated that their city will make a push for Amazon’s second headquarters. And while many cities are vying for the chance to bring tens of thousands of high-paying jobs to their region, some Chicago residents are criticizing Amazon’s approach as essentially being an auction for the best corporate subsidies, tax breaks, and incentives.

Chicago has prided itself on the fact that it has seen so much corporate investment and new development in recent years, but the city—and the state—also face major challenges that will cause alarm for such a high-profile company like Amazon. The state’s two-year budget stalemate has caused deep damage not only to our state’s credit rating, but also to our higher ed institutions and student body. A new study from the Illinois Economic Policy Institute (ILEPI) and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign suggests that in addition to thousands of teacher layoffs, Illinois colleges and universities have 72,000 fewer students since the budget stalemate.

Illinois’s economic and political dysfunction is a national embarrassment and is something that will certainly be considered by executives at Amazon when making a final decision for their second headquarters. Otherwise, Chicago checks off every other box. It’s a large, built-up urban city with a robust public transit system and major national transportation hubs. Chicago is a city with a thriving, young workforce, and great higher ed institutions. It’s also a relatively affordable city compared to major coastal cities.

Chicago also has a history and legacy as a major merchant city—although the big mail order and department store businesses that helped to build Chicago have since plummeted in prestige and might. For decades, Chicago-based companies like Sears, Roebuck and Company and Montgomery Ward dominated the mail order and retail business. The busts of Chicago’s prominent merchants line the Chicago River in front of the Merchandise Mart. Could a bronze bust of Jeff Bezos be added to the row one day?

Can Chicago really compete and potentially win the second Amazon HQ? Should it even come to Chicago? Would such a corporate outpost help the city and its financial hardships or would offering huge subsidies and tax incentives only hurt us more?

• Chicago courting Jeff Bezos to land Amazon’s coveted second HQ [Curbed Chicago]
• Amazon announces plans for massive new North American HQ [Curbed]