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Bezos travels to several cities on HQ2 finalist list

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, shown here in 2012, bought the Washington Post, it was announced Monday. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

The CEO of Amazon has already traveled to at least five cities on the finalist list for the company’s second headquarters.

The Puget Sound Business Journal reports Jeff Bezos traveled to Boulder, Colorado; Dallas, Texas; Los Angeles, California; New Jersey; and Washington D.C.

Those flight records don’t necessarily mean those are the only finalist cities he’s traveled to. And an Amazon representative tells MyNorthwest that “There’s no connection between Jeff’s personal and business travel, and our HQ2 search.”

The Business Journal report follows others that have said Amazon representatives have been seen in at least 10 of the 20 finalist cities over the past several months.

Amazon expects to invest more than $5 billion in construction and an additional $38 billion to the chosen city’s economy, as well as create up to 50,000 high-paying jobs with HQ2. It will be a “full equal” to the campus in Seattle, which occupies more than 8 million square feet across more than 30 buildings.

The cities in the running for HQ2 are:

  • Atlanta
  • Austin
  • Boston
  • Chicago
  • Columbus
  • Dallas
  • Denver
  • Indianapolis
  • Miami
  • Montgomery County
  • Nashville
  • Newark
  • New York City
  • Northern Virginia
  • Pittsburgh
  • Philadelphia
  • Raleigh
  • Toronto
  • Washington D.C.