A top Amazon official reportedly told more than a dozen Newark, N.J., representatives what to expect during the remainder of the competition for HQ2, a $5 billion second headquarters that will be awarded to a city in North America. Amazon told Newark that the company “wanted the public discourse to stop,” a person familiar with the meeting told ROI-NJ, according to the New Jersey news publication.
The source told ROI-NJ that Amazon plans to issue another request for proposals by the end of the week, this one not released publicly, the report said. However, a person familiar with the matter told GeekWire today that there will not be a second RFP. Amazon said in its announcement last Thursday that it will be requesting additional information from cities in the coming months.
Amazon also plans to make private site visits to each of the 20 cities announced last week, according to the report. Amazon did not tell Newark whether there would be another elimination round before the final announcement, the report says.
Contacted by GeekWire, Amazon declined to comment on the report.
Related: May HQ2 be ever in your favor: Amazon’s new short list pits 20 cities against each other in a risky game
A whopping 238 cities responded to Amazon’s first request for proposals and several pulled wacky publicity stunts to get Amazon’s attention. This time around, the focus will be much more on the substance of the proposals, according to the report. Amazon narrowed the field down to 20 cities last week, including Newark. Each of those contestants is vying for Amazon’s second “full equal” corporate headquarters that promises to bring 50,000 jobs with an average salary of $100,000 per year to the winning city.
ROI-NJ is a new business news publication founded in September by Tom Bergeron, a former newspaper reporter and editor at The Star-Ledger and Yahoo!
