Bezos says Amazon’s second headquarters will be revealed by end of 2018

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced Thursday that the location of his company’s second headquarters would be revealed by the end of the year.

Amazon released a list of 20 cities as its finalists for “HQ2.” They include Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C.

“The answer is very simple,” Bezos said during an Economic Club of Washington, D.C., event Thursday night, according to CNBC. “We will answer the decision before the end of the year.”

Among the qualifications listed are a metropolitan area with a population of over a million people, a business-friendly environment and urban or suburban locations that can attract potential employees. 

{mosads}The company has said it is likely to invest more than $5 billion in the new headquarters and is looking for a site large enough to accommodate up to 50,000 workers making an average of $100,000 a year. 

Amazon received 238 bids from cities vying to be the site of the business’ second hub. Whichever location is selected is widely expected to experience a surge in real estate value and an influx of jobs.

“All the proposals showed tremendous enthusiasm and creativity,” Holly Sullivan, who heads Amazon’s public policy division, said in a statement. “Through this process we learned about many new communities across North America that we will consider as locations for future infrastructure investment and job creation.”