As Raleigh has developed over the past few decades, it has increasingly become a center for living, education and industry. With this growth Raleigh has been lucky enough to come across more than its fair share of opportunities, but perhaps no opportunity has been greater than the chance to be Amazon’s second headquarters.
In September of 2017, Amazon announced that it was looking to start a second headquarters in addition to its current Seattle location. Two hundred thirty-eight cities sent in requests, including Charlotte and Raleigh.
Cities are interested in Amazon because of the economic benefits it would provide. Amazon states that it’s looking to create an equivalent of their Seattle location, meaning they are willing to invest five billion in the city selected, directly hire 50,000 employees and indirectly create 10,000 jobs in the process of building their headquarters.
On Thursday, Amazon distilled those 238 cities down to 20 on a shortlist, based on the qualifications they listed … and of those 20 Raleigh made the cut. We are in the company of metropolitan cities like Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, but we aren’t the only city on our level of development either; others include: Indianapolis, Nashville and Atlanta.
Even in the company of cities much bigger, and cities very similar in size, Raleigh is clearly the best choice for Amazon to make based on its qualifications, preparedness and willingness to embrace Amazon.
Now, that may seem like quite a bold statement given that we are rivaled by big cities like Los Angeles and New York, but we beat those types out with our potential to grow.
Developed metropolises like Los Angeles and New York are expensive. Five billion dollars goes a lot further in Raleigh than in it would in either of those places. This is why Amazon does not need, nor does it want a huge city. Amazon could use a city that has room to grow, and a city that has room to accommodate a large workforce.
Raleigh easily outclasses these metropolitan cities in this way with plenty of suburban living and room for urban development. Amazon sees an enormous amount of potential in Raleigh for this reason; it’s no accident that we are on the shortlist. We have the workforce and the room that other cities lack.
Yet another reason for Amazon to choose Raleigh is our location. We’re on the east coast, and not just on the east coast, but right in the middle of it regarding north and south. If you look at a map of the top 20, it’s easy to see how Raleigh has a geographical advantage over pretty much every other city except Nashville and Atlanta when it comes to coverage of the U.S.
With Raleigh’s access to other developing cities nearby, like Durham and Charlotte, the ability of Raleigh to ship and receive goods shouldn’t create a bottleneck.
At this point Raleigh holds significant advantages, whether through room for growth, or by location, over every city except two on the list: Nashville and Atlanta.
Now either of these would likely serve as a decent headquarters for Amazon, but Raleigh is a tier above both of them in some specific ways.
Raleigh is only 133 miles from the Wilmington Port Authority, and North Carolina has a fantastic oversea trading system already established. Compare this to Atlanta, which is 250 miles from its port authority. This is a small detail, but the cost would add up. Furthermore, Nashville is in Tennessee, which is landlocked; frankly, it seems unwise to choose a landlocked state as a headquarters for shipping reasons.
So, at this point it’s obvious that Raleigh’s main rival is Atlanta, but Raleigh outclasses Atlanta for reasons beyond distance to the sea.
Amazon is going to need college-educated workers and as it turns out, 49% of individuals have a bachelor’s degree or higher in Raleigh, compared to 39% in Atlanta. The average worker in Raleigh is better prepared than the worker from Atlanta.
Beyond that, both cities have great schools for computer science, big data and paper science – Amazon is going to need a lot of that for their boxes. NC State has almost twice the student body size as Georgia Tech, and can provide a much larger workforce for Amazon to work with; this is quite important considering they plan to provide 50,000 jobs.
Raleigh also has the Research Triangle Park, which attracts jobs and new technologies from across the U.S. It would be wise for Amazon to choose a location that has such a close connection to a place that is often compared to Silicon Valley.
On a more long term note, Business Insider ranks Raleigh No. 7 on the list of best cities to live in, while it ranks Atlanta No. 50. A lot of people will move to the city Amazon chooses, so it would heavily benefit Amazon to choose a city in which their employees could successfully and happily raise a family.
Amazon wants a city that is excited for them. I’m ecstatic that we made the top 20, and if you aren’t, you should be. This is a chance for Raleigh to rise to the forefront of American industry, and it’s an opportunity that is one in a million for this city and for the people who live in it.
If you’re not convinced, just think of all the benefits Amazon will bring: co-op jobs with one of the biggest companies in America would increase NC State’s already fantastic return on investment and the creation of projects that only exist in metropolitan cities – they just opened a fully automatic grocery store in Seattle.
This is a chance Raleigh wants more than anything; with it we could become the envy of other cities, with the great universities we have, the fantastic city landscape we have – while still maintaining a natural environment – and some of the safest places to raise a family, the addition of so many jobs and infrastructure would likely turn Raleigh into the ideal American city. Amazon needs Raleigh, and we need Amazon.
