Bay Area cities not on Amazon's finalist list for second headquarters
SAN JOSE (Maureen Naylor/KTVU) - Amazon announced Thursday 20 finalist locations to build its second headquarters and the Bay Area was not on the list.
San Jose submitted one of the Bay Area's failed bids.
Matt Regan with the Bay Area Council submitted the other which was a collaborative proposal including Concord, Fremont, Oakland, Richmond and San Francisco.
Regan received a phone call from the head of Amazon's Public Policy Thursday morning to say the Bay Area did not make the cut.
"At the end of the day it was their opinion they already have significant presence here in the Bay Area," said Regan.
The Seattle-based company has already has 4,000 employees and 3-million square feet of office space in the Bay Area including offices in Sunnyvale and East Palo Alto.
The online retailer launched a search to find a second home-base equal to its Seattle headquarters, promising up to 50,000 high-paying jobs and more than $5 billion in investments.
Of Amazon's 20 finalists, Los Angeles is the sole West Coast city under consideration.
The vast majority are in the Midwest or East Coast.
The announcement comes one day after Apple announced its plans for expansion outside California.
"It's recognition that technology is everywhere. You don't have to necessarily be in Silicon Valley to attract good talent," said tech analyst Larry Magid.
Magid says looking outside Silicon Valley can not only mean a cheaper costs of living but also can make a tech company more geographically and politically diverse.
"I think at a time when tech is being scrutinized it's probably smart to be employing people besides Silicon Valley or in Amazon's case Seattle," said Magid.
Magid says there are still plenty of jobs in the Bay Area and this type of expansion elsewhere was bound to happen.
"I don't think it hurts the Bay Area. It could help people looking for housing. Anytime you take a person out of the housing market that's one more unit for the rest of us to bid on," said Magid.
Regan says the high-cost of housing and traffic both came up in the conversation with Amazon.
"We are victims of our success. Now we need to manage that success," said Regan.