While 20 North American cities watch Seattle-based Amazon for any sign of favour, Amazon officials are quietly visiting those cities, including Toronto, sizing up their headquarters hosting potential.

Mayor John Tory recently told reporters that Amazon’s research on the only Canadian contender in the 20-city battle to host the company’s “HQ2” second headquarters is limited to a “very, very narrow circle of people” mostly at the Toronto Global inter-governmental agency co-ordinating the regional bid.

Amazon officials are “visiting the cities, and they’re not doing it with a lot of fanfare,” Tory said. “They’re visiting the cities that are on the shortlist and they are asking for more details of the things that were contained in the bid books and they’re going about a very methodical process of making their selection.”

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The hush around this phase of the Olympic bid-style process is by design. The 19 U.S. contenders, which include Boston, Austin, New York, Atlanta and Indianapolis, and Toronto have all signed secrecy agreements. The prospect of up to 50,000 new jobs and $5 billion (U.S.) in investments, plus the myriad of spin-off benefits from the booming online conglomerate, is keeping a virtual cone of silence firmly in place.

What is known is what stopped some cities from making the top-20 list, thanks to feedback they got from the decision-makers. Amazon told Cincinnati economic development officials their city didn’t have enough software developers, computer programmers and other tech specialists to be a HQ2 finalist, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

“Talent was the most important factor out of everything they looked at,” Ed Loyd, a spokesman the agency that co-ordinated that city’s bid, told the newspaper.

Toronto Global will only say that its discussions with Amazon go beyond the 185-page bid book released last fall that trumpets the region’s wealth of tech talent, cultural diversity, cosmopolitan culture and more.

“We’re still working away at providing Amazon with the detailed information that flows from our bid book and that they have requested of all 20 shortlisted cities,” said Toronto Global’s Erika Thompson. “The positive thing, from our perspective, is that we actually have a number of new things to add, since the bid book was submitted, to further bolster Toronto Region’s appeal as a virtually unmatched engine for high-quality talent and people.”

They include Ryerson DMZ ranked as a top university-based tech incubator; Toronto “listed as having the most cranes in North America, demonstrating the pace of development and growth in the Toronto region”; and another record-breaking year for tourism.

Amazon has given no firm timetable for an announcement, only that it expects to name a winning city sometime in 2018. Meanwhile, people are trying to read the high-tech tea leaves.

When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently starred in a Superbowl ad, many viewers read a lot into the fact that commercial opened with an Alexa virtual assistant saying the weather in Austin, Texas, ranked by many as an HQ2 frontrunner.

“It’s a big ol’ clue, as far as we’re concerned,” Texas Monthly drawled.

The fact that no signs have pointed directly at Toronto yet will be a relief to some who say the city doesn’t need a massive new office complex that would send local housing costs even higher, squeeze the almost-zero vacancy rate like an orange, and create a talent shortage for smaller tech companies.

Whatever happens in the weeks or months ahead, just being in the Amazon spotlight has already made Toronto a winner, observers say.

Tory recently said Toronto’s HQ2 bid book has been downloaded about 12,000 times “and we hope that 11,999 other people besides Amazon decide to come here and invest.”

Rana Sarkar, who as Canada’s consul general in San Francisco keeps a close eye on Silicon Valley, says Amazon is aware of Canada and Toronto’s leadership in artificial intelligence, and that knowledge is spreading thanks to Toronto Global taking the unusual step of making its bid fully public.

“The level of knowledge about what’s taking place in Canada right now is rising as a result of the prominence of this bid,” Sarkar said in an interview. “That form of knowledge circulation and advertising is an invaluable good.

“It’s a validation of Toronto hitting critical mass and there’s a sense we’re now at an inflection point for growth. There’s a bit of buzz around Toronto right now and that’s a good thing. This isn’t just Amazon related.”

Sunil Gupta of the Harvard Business School said “Toronto certainly has a shot” at winning HQ2 despite being outside the U.S. and not offering huge tax breaks or other incentives like many U.S. contenders.

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“Toronto being the only city from Canada will perhaps get more of a spotlight than say Boston or many of those places,” said Gupta, Harvard’s Edward W. Carter Professor of Business Administration, adding that many of his Seattle friends have a “love-hate relationship” with Amazon.

“There is the pride in the city because lots is happening and they can see the innovation in the city, lots of jobs created, every second person probably works for Amazon in one form or another,” he said. “The hate is now given the stock prices going through the roof you have lots of millionaires who are buying property like crazy which raises prices and maybe you can’t live where you’d like.”

Toronto is a long shot at winning this particular sweepstakes, according to Paddy Power. On Wednesday the Dublin-based bookmaker reported that “Toronto is trading at 16 to 1” putting Toronto well behind other cities.

The odds-on favourites, according to Paddy Power, are Atlanta, Austin and Boston.

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