The City of Birmingham is interested in becoming the home for a second corporate headquarters for Amazon.com, Mayor William Bell said today.

In a brief interview this morning with AL.com, Bell said today's announcement of Amazon scouting for a $5 billion second campus "did not come as a surprise." Birmingham is looking in the western area of town for possible locations.

"We are always interested in Birmingham as a home for corporate headquarters," Bell said. "We are very interested in Amazon, and we will be working with other organizations in making an effort to attract Amazon to this community."

"Of course, in any situation like this, we are usually bound by non-disclosure agreements to speak about any entities, so beyond that, I'm not at liberty to say. Just that we're making an effort."

Amazon's current corporate headquarters is in downtown Seattle, Wash., and has brought an estimated $38 billion in additional investments to the city. According to Amazon, this second headquarters will employ up to 50,000 full-time employees, with an average annual total compensation exceeding $100,000 over the next ten to fifteen years.

The Internet giant is already home to one big project. Amazon's $30 million "sortation center" in Mobile County is set to open in October in an industrial park off Interstate 10 in Theodore.

Amazon is looking at metro areas of more than 1 million residents, which would include Birmingham. The company says it also has a preference for:

A stable and business-friendly environment.

Urban or suburban locations with the potential to attract and retain strong technical talent.

Communities that think big and creatively when considering locations and real estate options.

"We expect HQ2 to be a full equal to our Seattle headquarters," Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon, said in a statement. "Amazon HQ2 will bring billions of dollars in up-front and ongoing investments, and tens of thousands of high-paying jobs. We're excited to find a second home."

The announcement also attracted interest from Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, via his gubernatorial campaign Twitter account:

Nick Lough, communications director of Battle for Alabama, said Battle became aware of the announcement this morning.

"Landing any kind of project of that scope would be a gamechanger for the state of Alabama, no matter what community it landed in," Lough said. "We welcome any conversation that Amazon would like to have about any of the cities across Alabama. Landing a major jobs project in Birmingham is also a win for Huntsville, a win for Mobile, a win for Montgomery. Tommy Battle has a proven track record of recruiting jobs to our state and he would welcome any efforts in trying to land a big fish like Amazon."