amazon toronto bid

Toronto's failed Amazon bid actually earned the city $143 million

New York and Virginia: Shanté, you stay. Toronto, I'm sorry. Sashay away. 

After months and months of work and waiting, we're officially out of the running to serve as Amazon's second North American home. The tech company announced on Tuesday that it has officially chosen both New York City and Arlington, Virginia for HQ2.

That's right, in a shocking twist, there are two winners of Amazon's more than one-year-long reality TV-style bidding and selection process for a new corporate headquarters location.

Each of the two campuses—one in Long Island City and one in Crystal City, near Washington, D.C.—will bring about 25,000 "high-paying jobs" to their respective areas, as well as an estimated $5 billion in infrastructure spending and investments.

Toronto didn't fare so bad, though, as mayor John Tory pointed out in a conciliatory statement today following Amazon's announcement.

Not only were we one of only 20 finalists selected out of 238 potential cities, we were also brought in some $143 million in advertising value, thanks to all the publicity.

"We know the Toronto Region has already received an extraordinary dividend from this process - the downloading of our bid book some 17,000 times around the world by people considering Toronto as the place to locate or grow their businesses," reads Tory's statement.

"Right now, Toronto is a beacon for investment, for smart people and for global companies," he continued. 

"Our city is booming and this process has allowed us to tell that success story - the story of our tech industry and our ability to foster that industry - around the world."

Hear, hear!

Lead photo by

Roozbeh Rokni


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