Dallas-Fort Worth is used to having the talent to win, all the time.

In the world of corporate relocations, it's a perennial favorite along the lines of college basketball dynasties that always make it to the Final Four, says Dale Petroskey, CEO of the Dallas Regional Chamber, the organization that helps attract new business to the region.

But to win the biggest prizes, it'll need to elbow power cities like New York City and Washington, D.C., out of the way from now on, says Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. And it'll need a boost from the state in the form of more funding for schools to build a deeper bench.

In Amazon's final equation, Dallas' density of tech talent fell short of the e-commerce giant's expectations of a second headquarters city that could attract as many as 50,000 skilled and highly paid workers.

On Tuesday, Amazon chose the East Coast cities of New York and Washington, D.C., to host its second and third headquarters — a split decision with each getting 25,000 jobs.

"These two locations will allow us to attract world-class talent that will help us to continue inventing for customers for years to come," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in announcing the highly anticipated decision.

Amazon also said it would pay those new workers an average salary of $150,000 — 50 percent higher than it had said originally — to make up for its selection of nearly identical high cost-of-living markets like its current home in Seattle. Amazon's decision will long be scrutinized for what it does and doesn't accomplish.

A third city, Nashville, won an Amazon operations hub with 5,000 workers.

Incentives tied to jobs

New York, Virginia and Tennessee all came up with hefty incentives to lure the most prized economic development project in recent history. In all, the incentives total almost $2.5 billion and compare to an estimated $1.1 billion from Dallas and Texas. Here's how the incentives break down:

In New York, Amazon will receive $1.525 billion based on the company's creating 25,000 jobs in Long Island City. That includes a cash grant of $325 million. Amazon said it was also applying for other available incentives.



Arlington, Va., will give Amazon $573 million based on the company's creating 25,000 jobs, plus $23 million over 15 years from local hotel taxes. An additional $195 million will be spent on neighborhood infrastructure improvements, including a pedestrian bridge connecting the Crystal City neighborhood to Reagan National Airport. Arlington will also dedicate $28 million in future property taxes for open spaces and infrastructure.

In Nashville, Amazon will receive up to $102 million based on the company's creating 5,000 jobs with average pay of $150,000. This includes a $65 million cash grant for capital expenditures, provided those jobs happen within seven years.

Tuesday's selection capped a 61-week search that had set off a spirited competition among 238 North American cities. In January, Amazon unveiled a list of 20 finalists that included Dallas and Austin. Dallas impressed Amazon officials enough to make it one of a handful of cities to receive second visits in August.

Dallas leaders stressed that 40 companies have expanded in or relocated to Dallas-Fort Worth in the 14 months of the Amazon courtship.

In New York and D.C., Amazon will be helping two neighborhoods attempt comebacks.

Long Island City, in the Queens borough of New York, is across the East River from midtown Manhattan. Its transformation from a factory and warehouse center into a residential area because of a shortage of living space in New York has strained its old infrastructure.

The Crystal City area of Arlington has plenty of empty buildings ready to be retrofitted for Amazon. It's across the Potomac River from Washington and has lost thousands of government workers who were moved over the last 15 years.

Dallas reaction

In Dallas, too, Amazon representatives were interested in urban settings and had eliminated suburban sites they were shown during a trip in February, Rawlings said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News conducted before the Amazon announcement on Tuesday.

"We competed hard. We competed well. But we did not succeed," Rawlings said Tuesday morning at a news conference. "This calls upon us to look hard at ourselves about why we can't beat New York City and Washington, D.C."

Rawlings said he received a phone call Monday morning from an Amazon representative who offered a couple of reasons Dallas wasn't chosen. Amazon's leadership has "a fascination with the East Coast," he said. And while Amazon said Dallas had "a remarkable talent system," the company believes the people it needs immediately — software engineers — are in those locations.

Rawlings called upon the Texas Legislature to "do some soul-searching" and boost spending for public and higher education. "We have to make sure that Texas has the best schools in America," he said.

Though disappointed, Dallas Regional Chamber officials and Rawlings said Amazon was always professional and there was no bidding war.

"I like to win, so my heart's broken today," Rawlings said, "but I will tell you we are leaps and bounds better as a city because we went through this."

The Dallas Regional Chamber's Petroskey said the region will move forward. "Our momentum as a destination of choice has only increased as a result of being a finalist for HQ2," he said.

In the last eight years, D-FW has added more than 1 million residents, growth fueled by more than 120 corporate headquarters relocations and hundreds of local company expansions, creating 750,000 new jobs, Petroskey said.

Rigorous process

The high-profile search process helped Amazon amass an unduplicated database of available sites and cities' strengths and weaknesses from the volumes of HQ2 proposals submitted. Dallas-Fort Worth alone presented Amazon with a password-protected website and a 253-page spiral book featuring 60 sites in 23 cities across North Texas.

Austin and Dallas worked with Gov. Greg Abbott on tax incentives offered to Amazon, but that information wasn't publicly disclosed until Tuesday. Rawlings touted one feature of Dallas' offer: a proposal to build an "Amazon U" on land behind City Hall. It would have been a joint project of the University of Texas System, the University of North Texas, Southern Methodist University, the Dallas County Community College District and the Dallas Independent School District.

Amazon U, designed to provide a pipeline of skilled workers for the e-commerce giant, could have been anything Amazon wanted and might even have incorporated classes for young children, Rawlings said.

Amazon's scouts planned two-day visits to each city. They came to Dallas in February, and the chamber planned every minute, including touring sites that Amazon had selected in advance.

It was obvious early in the process that Amazon was only interested in downtown Dallas, Rawlings said. "We prioritized 25 sites, including in North Dallas, and it was obvious to us on the second day that all they wanted was urban."

After the February trip, contact with Amazon remained positive, he said. "Through different contacts here and there, we heard that Dallas was in the top five."

Dallas, like many cities, had a return visit from the Amazon search team in August.

On Aug. 9, Amazon narrowed its choice to sites that wrap around the western and southern sides of downtown, from Union Station and the former Dallas Morning News building south to the Cedars and Southside on Lamar and then east to 20 acres behind City Hall to Interstate 30.

Leading Amazon's scout team was Holly Sears Sullivan, who previously led economic development efforts in both the Nashville and Washington, D.C., regions. Nashville, a city that's similar to Austin, has its music scene and is home to Vanderbilt University, Fisk University and Tennessee State University. The operations hub there will be built just north of an area called The Gulch, which has offices, apartments, restaurants and some retail.

From the beginning, some city officials and neighborhood groups from Austin to Denver to Pittsburgh expressed concern that attracting Amazon would drive up the cost of living and create additional traffic problems in their cities. Dallas leaders weren't worried.

"I believe we can digest any growth," Rawlings said. "The naysayers [who] think we can't chew and walk at the same time aren't interested in competing in America today."

Twitter: @MariaHalkias