Amazon is hunting for a site for its new multibillion-dollar headquarters in North America, and one city councillor thinks London is a potential match.
Amazon announced Thursday that it will spend more than US$5 billion to build another headquarters in North America to house as many as 50,000 employees.
The technology company plans to stay in its current Seattle headquarters and the new space will be a full equal of its current home, said Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.
The announcement is certain to set-off a scramble of North American cities competing to be Amazon’s new home, and has piqued the interest of Mayor Matt Brown.
Ward 7 councillor Josh Morgan believes London could make a strong bid, and he plans on raising the issue at the committee level next week.
“This will be a competitive process. If we even want to consider it, we have to start talking about it today,” said Morgan. “All I’m asking for, at this point, is let’s have the conversation about if we want to go for this because that’s something we should be doing when we see these opportunities.”
The company wants a city of more than a million people with an international airport, good education and mass transit.
Cities have a little more than a month to apply through a special website, and the company said it will make a final decision next year.
With files from The Canadian Press