For the past year, Angelos Angelou has faced the same question time after time. He’s come to expect it in calls with journalists, or when talking to fellow economists and business partners.

Where will Amazon build its second headquarters?

It’s been one of the biggest questions of the business world since Sept. 7, 2017 -- the day Amazon announced plans for its giant project.

The company publicly invited every North American city to bid for the development, promising them that its eventual pick would receive $5 billion in investment from the company over 15 to 17 years, along with up to 50,000 high-paying jobs.

“We look forward to working with you,” Amazon told cities in its request for proposal for the development it has called HQ2. It also boasted that its investment in its hometown Seattle had pumped $38 billion into the local economy from 2010 to 2016.

Since then, however, a year’s worth of days have passed.

As the process has gone on, with little public comment from Amazon, the tension level has continued to rise.

"This has been going on for so long that everyone is just anxious to figure out who Amazon is going to pick," said Angelou, the head of Austin-based economic consultancy Angelou Economics. "There will be quite an amount of debate in the community that wins it about the opportunity, but also the challenges."

The race for HQ2 began intensely. City leaders across the country tried to publicly sway Amazon to pick their locations. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie proposed $7 billion in tax incentives. Chicago created a 600-person HQ2 committee. The University of Texas at Dallas offered Amazon 100 acres. Stonecrest, a Georgia city near Atlanta, proposed to rename part of its incorporated area after Amazon.

By January, the online retailer had whittled a list of 238 initial bids to 20 finalists -- with Austin and Dallas among them.

But even for cities left off the list of finalists, Angelou said, the exercise provided some benefit.

"It forced a lot of communities to look internally and try to put teams together," he said. "For the first time, many cities are engaged in regional economic development."

As the selection process has continued, Amazon has faced skepticism -- and criticism -- over the company’s desire to receive taxpayer-funded incentives, and over the possible impact HQ2 would have on the city where it locates.

In Austin, national polls, social media discussions and even talk from city leaders has throughout the year revealed concerns from local residents.

Residents have indicated they worry HQ2 could exacerbate traffic problems on Austin’s already congested roadways, threaten its quirky culture and increase the cost of living in the city.

Similar debates have arisen nationwide. Seattle's housing costs have climbed sharply as Amazon has taken over its downtown, causing residents of many cities bidding for HQ2 to wonder if the same fate could await them.

Elected officials have also questioned Amazon’s trustworthiness. Throughout the past year, officials in the nation’s capital and throughout the country have debated whether major tech companies such as Facebook and Amazon have too much power (Amazon is worth about $975 billion).