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These Experts Say Philadelphia Is the Best Place for Amazon

Here’s why they’re betting on the City of Brotherly Love.


Photos via iStock.

After Amazon released a short list of finalists for its second headquarters last week, experts have jumped into the fray to double down on predictions on where they believe Amazon’s HQ2 will land.

Sperling’s BestPlaces ranked Philadelphia a top 10 finalist last week, now two experts say Philadelphia is Amazon’s best choice.

Moody’s senior economist Adam Ozimek told Money magazine last week, “Philadelphia is a well-rounded, underdog.” His comment comes after a Moody’s in-depth analysis that ranked Philadelphia third out of 65 locations.

In the same Money piece, Santiago Gallino, a professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, agreed with Ozimek.

“My personal guess is Philadelphia,” he said. “It has comparable statistics to Seattle in size, income, and transportation. It’s pretty much at the center of gravity of the best schools in the North East. And it’s a city that can be flexible in terms of accommodating a large headquarters.”

According to Gallino, Philadelphia matches Amazon’s need for a place where “customers, employees, and the community can all benefit.”

Amazon released a list of 20 total finalists and expects to make a final decision by the end of 2018. A spokesperson for the city’s Department of Commerce told Philadelphia magazine on Monday that the city has received next steps from Amazon but that the city “Will not be commenting on this phase of the process moving forward.”