Amazon plans to build a second headquarters in a North American city to be determined, saying the new $5 billion campus will be a “full equal” to the company’s existing operations in its longtime home of Seattle, accommodating up to 50,000 high-paying jobs.

Amazon just announced the plan for what it’s calling “HQ2” — inviting states and local governments to pitch the company on bringing the new headquarters to their community.

“Amazon HQ2 will be a complete headquarters for Amazon – not a satellite office,” the company says in a news release. “Amazon expects to hire new teams and executives in HQ2, and will also let existing senior leaders across the company decide whether to locate their teams in HQ1, HQ2 or both. The company expects that employees who are currently working in HQ1 can choose to continue working there, or they could have an opportunity to move if they would prefer to be located in HQ2.”

Amazon’s boom has transformed a large chunk of Seattle, with more than 8 million square feet of space across 33 buildings, primarily in the Denny Triangle and South Lake Union neighborhoods north of downtown. The company said previously that it planned to expand its footprint in Seattle to 12 million square feet by 2022. It has been continuing to lease office space at a rapid pace in Seattle.

Listen to GeekWire co-founder John Cook’s analysis of the news and where the new headquarters could go below:



Amazon declined to comment beyond its news release, but a person familiar with the company’s plans said it currently has more than 6,000 open positions in Seattle and expects to open 2 million more square feet of office space in the city, describing the second headquarters as part of its ongoing job creation. The company employs more than 380,000 people worldwide.

On a website detailing its plans, the company says, “We are looking for a location with strong local and regional talent—particularly in software development and related fields—as well as a stable and business-friendly environment to continue hiring and innovating on behalf of our customers.”

Amazon’s request for proposals gives a deadline of Oct. 17, with a site selection and announcement slated for 2018.

The move signals a shift in Amazon’s often complex relationship with its hometown of Seattle, where some civic leaders and citizens have grown wary of the company’s growth and its impact on the rapidly-changing city. Amazon’s expansion has been both a boon and a challenge in Seattle, fueling an economic boom and job growth but also contributing to the region’s rising housing prices and traffic problems. Jeff Bezos started the company in 1994 in nearby Bellevue, Wash., and the company has grown to more than 40,000 employees in the state currently, many of them based in Amazon’s urban campus.

Amazon didn’t provide a specific reason for deciding to establish a second headquarters, but the initiative suggests the company has outgrown Seattle. It’s an unprecedented move for a corporation of Amazon’s size to split its HQ operations, allowing managers, engineers and executives to choose where they live. That speaks to Amazon’s insatiable appetite for talent, and its need to establish a second outpost as a competitive advantage to continue growing its base of talent.

Given that Amazon plans to maintain its Seattle headquarters, the announcement isn’t as big a blow to the regional psyche as Boeing’s decision to move its headquarters to Chicago in 2001. However, it’s a sign that there’s a limit to the Seattle’s boom, for better or worse.

More special coverage of Amazon’s plans to establish a second headquarters:

Full news release below.