ATLANTA — With Atlanta is out of the running as home to an Amazon headquarters, Georgia governor Nathan Deal said he’s “proud of the efforts” state officials put in courting the online retail giant.
Amazon, which is based in Seattle, announced its plans to open two new headquarters in New York City and Arlington, Virginia Nov. 13. The company also announced a $230 million investment for a new operations site in Nashville.
Georgia officials have not released details on what incentives were offered to Amazon to build its headquarters in Atlanta, who was named as a finalist for HQ2 in January. Both Amazon and Deal have reaffirmed Amazon’s stake in Georgia – which is home to about 4,000 Amazon employees, company officials said.
“The Amazon project is the epitome of the state’s partnership approach to economic development,” said Gov. Deal. “I couldn’t be more proud of the efforts that were put forward by our state economic development team, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, Invest Atlanta, Georgia Power and other partners around the state. While it’s unfortunate that we will not be moving forward with HQ2, we are excited to have been named a finalist and are very proud of the recent Amazon announcements that took place over the last year in Georgia.”
Amazon reports it has invested over $700 million in Georgia since 2017, including customer fulfillment and cloud infrastructure, research facilities and employee pay. The company said it is continuing to hire in Georgia.
Currently, there are seven fulfillment centers across the state in East Point, Braselton, Jefferson, Kennesaw, Lithia Springs and Union City. Amazon also has a tech hub and two Prime Now hubs in Atlanta, and a campus pick-up location.
In a statement, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms wished Amazon well.
"We enjoyed the opportunity to be part of Amazon's search for a new headquarters location, as it gave us yet another opportunity to share with the world what Atlanta has to offer," Bottoms said. "We remain a proud host city to Amazon's current Atlanta offices and wish the company well in its new cities of choice."
Bob Mathews, who leads Colliers International in Atlanta, told the Atlanta Business Chronicle that he was sorry to see Atlanta wasn't chosen.
"However, my dismay will last only seconds, not minutes. If Amazon's HQs are as massive as expected / promised, they will suck the air out of the market for other firms trying to grow," Mathews said. "Thus, I believe Atlanta will be just fine with this decision by Amazon. We will be a better fit for other small/medium and large cap companies and will likely benefit from what could be an exodus of companies from the markets they chose."
In his statement, Deal said working through the Amazon HQ process has made the state stronger.
“We look forward to continued growth and future projects with Amazon. Working together through this process has made us stronger, enabling us to announce thousands of technology-related jobs for metro Atlanta in the last year, including well-known companies such as Salesforce, BlackRock, Pandora, Starbucks and others,” Deal said. “Even with today’s news, Georgia remains the No. 1 state for business in the U.S. and we will continue to work hard and grow jobs and investment in all corners of our state.”
