Miami Ranks Among Top Cities for Amazon’s Second Headquarters

By: Ismael Rodriguez

The race for Amazon’s highly anticipated second headquarters has drawn Moody’s Analytics to collect enough data to build a list of the top contenders for the e-commerce giant.

Moody’s Analytics presented Amazon with a list containing the name of ten cities with the greatest potential for 50,000 jobs and a $5 billion investment.

The firm compiled the results based on five categories— business environment, human capital, cost, quality of life, and transportation. The firm also valued geography as a focal point in ranking the cities.

The rankings, according to Moody’s Analytics, are as followed:

Miami sits seventh on the list, and meets most of Amazon’s criteria for a successful location for their headquarters. According to the Moody’s Analytics breakdown, Miami International is the nation’s second busiest airport as ranked by metric tonnes of international freight and PortMiami is the only East Coast port south of Virginia capable of docking the largest ships that can navigate through the recently expanded Panama Canal.

Miami’s metro division is also the only area in the U.S. where the majority of residents are foreign-born and the airport is nation’s second-busiest hub for international travel. Like all Florida cities, Miami features no state or local income taxes and a warm business and weather climate. None of these statistics would surprise Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO; he graduated from a Miami-area high school 35 years ago.